


Rejuvenescência

by nofox



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Activism, Beta Wanted, F/F, F/M, Mental Instability, Not So Platonic Friendship, Partying, Politics, Social engineering
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-10
Updated: 2017-06-23
Packaged: 2018-10-30 03:36:35
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 49,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10868253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nofox/pseuds/nofox
Summary: The story of how Sombra and Lucio met.Vishkar Corporation is attempting to rejuvenate Rio de Janiero and eliminate poverty through a massive redevelopment project led by the visionary architect Satya Vaswani. Satya's Utopian dream, however, is on the verge of becoming a nightmare as the development of the city's slums faces local resistance, budget constraints, impinging deadlines and bad press. Meanwhile, a young, troubled, and viciously apolitical Sombra crashes in Rio after a long depression to take in the electronic music scene (among other things). There she strikes an unusual friendship with Lucio, an up and coming underground DJ, and reluctantly partakes in his activism to try and end Vishkar's presence in Rio. As Satya caves to mounting pressure and employs increasingly totalitarian methods to ensure her project's success, Lucio's movement unexpectantly gains critical mass, thereby forcing everyone to confront the reality of their ideals and how far they are willing to go for them.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a standalone prequel to [Movimiento 31 de Octubre](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9629930/chapters/21757022) detailing how Lucio and Sombra became friends. Let me know what ya'll think in the comments! (sometimes it feels like I'm screaming into the void so comments really motivate me to write more)
> 
> I'm looking for Beta readers and critics. You can message me on Tumblr (linked in my profile).

It was early spring in Rio. The electronic music scene was starting to wake up. He was playing for a party at a show house in the gentrifying section of the Rocinha favela. The "house" was a 3 story apartment building with a decent arrangement, the renters bought out the landlord who refused to refurbish the building after the Omnic crisis and the subsequent economic collapse. They'd gotten it for cheap and formed a little collective. Now they hosted shows every Saturday in their basement, on their rooftop and in the minuscule space that constituted their yard.

At first Lucio was pissed that he had gotten the basement: it was small and hot from body heat and the lighting was low, out of season Christmas lights lined the ceiling and a large red emergency light illuminated the little space. But then he realized he was making this the place to be. Folks were coming down here on the pull, the people and ambiance were sexy.

Lucio watched the crowd in the tiny basement jump, grind and sweat to his music. Lucio’s setup was on the floor, barely separated from the crowd. The floor of was slick with a thin layer of mud from alcohol and shoe dirt, people were wasted and the night was relatively young. Indeed, it had gotten into the hot and heavy part of the show, the alcohol was flowing with no sign of running out. Lucio's reception, needless to say, was quite favorable.

His music thumped on as he watched a group of Los Muertos with their neon tattoos and body paint descend the rickety stairs into the show space. He took a quick pull of his massive trademark Grey Goose bottle as he bobbed his head to the beat.

At that moment, he saw a girl with a pink and violet mohawk make her way to the front of the crowd. She wore a sly smile as she approached. Lucio’s friend Esperanza spotted her, she was definitely her type. Like clockwork she moved in to dance with her. Lucio shook his head with a knowing smile as Esperanza flirted with her. He took another swig and the girl caught him out of the corner of her eye as she ran her fingers over her ear. It was an excuse to look at him. He waved them over to try to wing-man for Esperanza.

The girl’s eyes widened in surprise and she pointed to herself mouthing 'me?' Lucio nodded and she held her heart with an exaggerated look of disbelief.

" _¡_ _No me digas!_ " she shouted as she leaned over the booth.

Lucio realized he could almost see her tits, her loose shirt had stretched slightly from dancing and sweating.

Lucio fumbled. "Um, I don't speak Spanish!" he yelled back.

The girl put her hand on her hip and shook her head with a coy smile. "I can't believe you're a Latino that doesn't speak Spanish!"

Lucio smiled and played it cool. "Its pretty common here, but I’m a terrible Latino anyways," he shouted, "my dad's Canadian and I like hockey"

The girl made a look of disgust. "You're lucky I like your music! Otherwise, I'd have to kill you!"

"What?!" shouted Lucio pretending not to hear.

The girl smiled when she realized he was fucking with her.

"I'm gonna kill you!" she shouted with a smile as she backed into the crowd.

The party goers glared at her disapprovingly and pushed her back towards the booth. Lucio gestured for her to come behind the booth. She cocked her head and sauntered over.

"Ever DJ?" asked Lucio.

The girl laughed " _No manches!_ " and helped herself to Lucio's Goose. She took a heavy swig then quickly shook head as her face turned red. "You can drink this?"

"Oh yeah"

She smirked.

"You really are half-Canadian,” she jeered. She started to sway to the beat. “Drink tequila, man"

The girl was a piece of work, incredibly exciting for Lucio to look at. She wore violet hoop earrings with gold tights and Converse shoes. Her white sleeveless shirt bore a black hand print over a red star with the word "clandistino!" in stencil print below. He could see her lingerie through the wide sleeve holes, it actually looked somewhat expensive. She was beautiful, her brown skin seemed to glow with health. Lucio got a subtle sense from how close she was standing that she maybe more than liked him.

"Hey, you gotta DJ for me," he said.

"What! I said I didn't DJ!"

"Naw, it's easy, stand here," said Lucio standing aside then gently grabbing her hips and shifting her in front of his equipment.

The girl looked a little offended but went with it.

"Heh, sorry," said Lucio hoping he didn't blow it.

"Don't apologize," she said, suddenly looking serious. "OK, what do I do?"

"Can I stand behind you?"

"Yeah..."

He got behind her.

"Now, I'll just guide your hands..."

The girl laughed and loosened up.

"Oh, I get it, very clever, Lucio"

He put his hands under hers so he could guide them as he looked over her shoulder. He felt her swallow as they made contact and she let herself become pliable. Her skin was soft. There was something about her, this felt right to him.

"OK, we're gonna cross fade to the next song... so press this button to start the next song... good... then take this slider thingy here and slowly move it from the left to the right..."

The song transitioned.

"Heyyy, I'm pretty good!" she said looking over her shoulder happily.

"See? Its easy"

"Where's the creativity?" she sneered.

Lucio returned a flat smile.

"Well, ya gotta make your own songs”

"Sorry, I'm an asshole," she said taking another swig of his Goose.

Lucio smiled. "It's OK, I like mean girls, umm-"

"Sombra"

"Sombra. Wow, helluva name, your parents call you that?"

She turned.

"They're dead," she said flatly.

Lucio swallowed, he was a little flabbergasted. Sombra took the opportunity to snag a long swig of Goose. She eyeballed him as she drank. "It's OK, though, I didn't know them." She turned back towards the DJ booth. "So, I've got a friend who’s trying to get laid tonight. Let's play a real banger," she said pushing her hips into his waist.

 

* * *

 

The rest of the night was a blur.

"You're so pretty," she said and before he knew it she had lifted her arm behind his head and started making out with him.

Odd, no one had ever called him pretty.

Sombra had changed his set and queued up what most of what Lucio called his "booty" songs. He was wondering how she learned to use his DJ equipment so fast when he felt his consciousness bubble. He came to watching Sombra pour out his Grey Goose into the mouth of a girl wearing _calavera_ face paint. With a blink, Sombra was grinding on her.

"I'm really drunk!" she admitted shouting over the music, "is this OK?" The girl replied by wrapping her arms around Sombra's neck and kissing her deeply. Sombra returned the kiss then rocked her neck back at first as if it were too overwhelming. But then Lucio could see she was laughing. Lucio's photographer friend who went by the name 'Cobra Cobra' whooshed in and snapped a candid photograph of them. They'd end up on a watermarked photograph on his blog fairly soon. Sombra didn't mind, she was glowing drunk, drinking in the attention.

Another blink and Sombra was whispering in the girl's ear.

"Let me ask my boyfriend," the girl replied drunkenly.

 _What the fuck just happened?_ The _calavera_ girl ran off towards a tough looking omnic wearing Los Muertos paint. Sombra gave Lucio a nervous look that seemed to say 'this shouldn't be working.' He watched their exchange, the robot folded his arms but ultimately nodded 'OK.'

Sombra came back to Lucio.

"I want to have sex with you," she said over the music so he could hear, "but you're not a girl." Lucio swallowed. He couldn't believe what was happening. Sombra stepped away and wrapped her arm around the girl in the _calavera_ paint, bringing her in front of him. "This is Lolita, I live in the squat with her, we came down together to see you play and we just became friends," she shouted.

Lolita drunkenly swayed her shoulders back and forth and giggled.

"Hi," she said in an almost excessively feminine voice.

Sombra smiled proudly. "She's bi. Her boyfriend just gave her permission to hook up with me," she said then jokingly rubbed her nose on the side of Lolita's face.

Lolita winced and laughed, "That tickles!"

"So," said Sombra in a sultry tone, "wanna hangout with us?"

Lucio's jaw dropped as his brain arrived at what Sombra was doing. He collected his chin from the floor and tried to be cool.

“Yeah,” he managed to say, “I have to go talk to a friend...”

Lucio flitted off to find Esperanza. He found her upstairs sitting by herself in an old love seat with a handle of whiskey. He could hear the music from the other floors bumping.

“I am so sorry about what happened, I meant to call both of you-” he started to say when a Los Muertos _chola_ sauntered over and sat in her lap. They kissed intimately in front of Lucio.

“I love Los Muertos girls!” shouted Esperanza pulling away to take a swig of her drink, “they’re all gay!”

“Who’s he?” Esperanza's pull asked.

“DJ or something,” she replied before leaning in to kiss her neck.

He was only the most popular underground electronic music artist in Rio de Janeiro. If his shows weren't constantly pestered by overzealous police he'd be famous by now.

“Esperanza, can you make sure no one steals my stuff?”

She gave him the thumbs up as she indulged in necking the girl. Lucio guessed, or rather hoped, that meant his stuff would be OK while he was gone. He ran back to downstairs and descended into his manufactured chaos to Sombra and Lolita

"Yeah, I guess you guys are cool enough"

Sombra rolled her eyes and made a raspberry with her lips. "Real badass, huh? Whole things off," she said letting go of Lolita.

Lolita covered her mouth and fake gasped.

"What?" said Lucio as a feeling of dread hit his stomach.

 _How could I be so fucking stupid_? he thought kicking himself

"I'm just kidding, let's get out of here shall we?"

“Where we going?” asked Lucio.

“Your place...”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a good amount of this already written out. r/n I'm editing and deleting (smut) and rearranging things so this has an efficient progression. Expect tons of edits.

_Vishkar Headquarters, Rio de Janeiro_

Satya sat meditatively in her grand office overlooking Rio. It was night time, the illuminated city stirred beneath the _Christo Redentor_ with an activity in the process of being quantified and rationalized. Satya was running her economic planning model through in her mind, imagining what type of data she would need to make it work. She'd always been told that her memory was perfect when it came to numbers, that she had a mind like an elephant’s. In truth her memory was average and she made a point of correcting people. It was rather that numbers were like familiar people. She recognized their faces and habits. They were vivid to her, they shined and danced in her head with beautiful accord. There was no need to struggle to memorize them when they were so brilliant. No need to drag them through complex formulas and calculations when they seemed to simply abide. Her ability to do astronomically complex mathematical calculations purely in her head was recognized and appreciated at an early age. A Vishkar education initiative aimed at young girls in poverty allowed her to rise in the company hierarchy at a meteoric rate.

Now she ran the data they had gathered from Vishkar through her model. They scraped and disobeyed, they wouldn’t be squashed, in some cases they didn’t exist and she had to predict what they were from incomplete data. The numbers fit uncomfortably into her linear formulas. She frowned as she felt the ideal order she had founded just moments ago crash against the real. Stress hit her nerves as she tried to force the numbers to work. The numbers clashed as she tried to unify her econometric and sociological models into something resembling a form of social physics.

Suddenly, a soft electronic alarm rang. Her eyes shot open and her concentration cracked. The numbers disappeared.

She was scheduled to talk to the directrice. Sanjay had set the alarm for her and had chosen the sound so as not to disturb her. It had anyways. Satya turned it off then stood and squeezed her left hand. The stress had caused a phantom feeling in her prosthetic arm. She felt span under her armpit and in the pad of her thumb. Impossibly, the arm felt stiff, as if its non-existant blood flow had become irregular. She flourished her left hand in a dance-like motion. Dancing always relieved her, however, the sensation was still there. The holographic projector on her desk began to chirp that there was an incoming call. Another annoying interference. Satya repeated the motion four times until the feeling was gone then answered.

A hologram of her department head appeared before her.

“Directrice,” said Satya nodding her head in respect.

“Satya, we are pleased with the work you and Sanjay have accomplished in the Rio project.” She nodded again in respect to her complement. “However, our business intelligence team has reported an ‘externality’ which risks delaying construction and generating unanticipated costs”

Satya was silent.

This project had been grating at her for months. Her team had accomplished major milestones but the redevelopment of the favelas had still not taken place. In her models, the people there had their needs accounted for. With the data they were gathering, she could not yet find a place for them. The expectations of other people were a bother to Satya. The only thing that mattered was perfection.

The directrice sighed.

“We've had trouble accounting for political contingencies so I must apologize if this seems quite sudden”

“This is most irritating news, directrice”

“Indeed, I have taken measures to discourage business intelligence from such lapses and oversight. All the same, the team's report says that a local political movement in opposition to the development plan has the potential to disrupt your construction schedule. The Brazilian government has been stretched to its limit controlling and surveying the area. It will be up to you to take preemptive measures to control the local population and ensure that construction continues unhindered”

“Understood, directrice”

“We project that such measures will substantially reduce our risk and deter any future resistance. This task is of vital importance. Your targets are the leaders of the Rejuvenescência movement. Your directive is to eliminate the threat they pose to the project. We leave it to your discretion as to how. We will upload their profiles shortly. That is all”

The phrase ‘eliminate the threat’ rang in Sayta’s ears. Satya nodded and the directrice disappeared. Text bubbled to the top of the holographic projection with information about her targets.

Lucio, a young activist and musician/DJ, 20 years old, only child of two professionals. Satya’s eyes narrowed as she read his profile. He used his music to promote his vague left-wing ideals. Only a person of privilege could believe that one didn’t have to choose between their politics and their passion. Satya found him and his petty notions of equality distasteful. Capitalism raised her and her country from poverty and the ashes of war, capitalism motivated Vishkar to recognize her talent and foster her abilities, and, most importantly, capitalism accomplished the greatest human rights achievement of all time, namely, making a middle-class life accessible to the 1.2 billion people in her home country after the Omnic Crisis. Anyone who thought otherwise wasn’t willing to face the reality that this was the order of the world.

Rio de Janeiro and soon all of Brazil would be scientifically planned and managed by educated professionals not corrupt politicians. Everyone would have their place in the social order.

This was her goal.

Satya sighed and looked at the terminal on her desk. Her eyes fell on the scheduling program that produced the alarm sound.

 _Time,_ she thought simply as she felt a spell of discomfort hit her body. This project was more than her goal it was her vision and for someone accustomed to seeing her ideas materialize in front of her in seconds it was nothing but sometimes even simple things were difficult for her.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lucio spends an interesting night with two Los Muertos girls.
> 
> (smut you can skip it)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lolita is my characterization of the [Los Muertos girl on the left](http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/overwatch/images/0/03/Sos_4.png/revision/latest?cb=20161108034400), Hotbot is the omnic she's holding. I owe the name Hotbot to a Tumblr post I saw a few months ago (if I find it again I'll credit you).

"I have to ask Hotbot," Lolita moaned. She twisted her head as Sombra undid her flowery sundress. "I can't with Lucio here, he'll be mad at me..." She trailed off as Sombra began to slowly tweak her nipples through her sheer cotton bra. Suddenly, she took a sharp breath from the sensation. "Oh... oh..." she whimpered in her sugary voice.

Lucio sat at the end of the mattress in his underwear as Lolita succumbed to Sombra’s wiles. She wasn't putting up much of a fight. Sombra's hands were all over her, Lolita seemed to like being overpowered.

"I said I wouldn't be bad..." Lolita whined as her bra came off.

Lucio's mind was reeling, should he really be there? Hotbot was a Los Muertos, he'd definitely kill him... Sombra was being so sexually aggressive, was this OK? Would he even be able to have sex? It was sobering him up.

His thoughts were interrupted by Lolita's peculiar coital moaning. He turned to look at the two Los Muertos _cholas_.

Sombra turned Lolita on her front to eat her out from behind. She splayed her knees out and raised her butt in the air so she could better feel Sombra's tongue.

It was quite a sight. Lolita was a small busty girl with avian features: high cheekbones, big eyes, and an up-turned nose. Especially with her face paint, she was doll-like, hyper feminine with olive _mestiza_ skin. She wasn't Lucio's type but watching Sombra have her way with Lolita was putting him in a reckless mood.

"We'll just tell him afterwards..." reassured Sombra, taking a brief pause.

Lolita nodded gripping the sheets squeezing her eyes shut. She was waiting for Sombra to continue.

"OK?" asked Sombra leaning her face into Lolita's.

"O-OK," she stammered then swallowed, "please..."

Sombra obliged.

This was the result of a truth or dare game gone horribly wrong, or right depending on how you look at it. Lucio had dared Sombra to show them her Los Muertos tattoo. She obliged and simply kept her shirt off. Slowly, the dares became more sexual as the clothes continued to come off. So, now Lucio found himself here, watching Sombra fuck Lolita after a dare gone rather far.

Sombra snuck him an arrogant look as she was having her way with Lolita. It seemed like Sombra was testing him in a private game. She knew he wanted her, it was as if she was trying to find his limit before he couldn't help himself.

Minutes passed as Lucio sat there awkwardly. This had kind of been the course of the night. As soon as they arrived they were helping themselves to his liquor stash. They'd all been chatting in his living room but separately they disappeared to go to the bathroom and Lucio realized he was drinking alone. When he went to check out the bathroom he found the party had moved to his room. As he chatted with them, he found the conversation would spontaneously switch to Spanish. That was until Sombra proposed truth or dare...

From the sounds of Lolita's high-pitched moaning, Sombra was bringing her close.

"I'm... I'm gonna... I'm..." cried Lolita.

Suddenly, Lolita's body shuddered and bucked as her orgasm came with a weird hysterical scream/yawn in her trademark baby voice. Lucio could tell she was hamming it up but she seemed to like to.

"Oh my God," said Lolita panting as she turned over on her back. After a moment, she flicked her hair and sat up with a satisfied grin. She pulled her cigarettes out of her clutch. "I need to get my boyfriend to fuck me like that," she said, her voice suddenly more throaty and low. She lit her cigarette and took a drag. "He puts me on a pedestal," she said exhaling, "he's afraid of treating me like an object...” She looked at Lucio from under her dark bangs. “Oh yeah, and he doesn't initiate," she said in a mean voice, "it's exhausting"

"Aw, well, he is a robot..." noted Sombra.

"Omnic, whatever," she said laying back. "Sometimes I really just like a guy who doesn't care"

Sombra moved to sit on her lap and started making out with Lolita between her cigarette drags.

"Hotbot treats you special because he loves you, Lola," said Sombra straddling herself on Lolita’s body. "Hey, finish that cigarette, I wanna do something. Maybe you can join us this time, Lucio"

Lucio gave her a quick half-smile. She eyed him coquettishly as she dismounted Lolita then maneuvered around the open half-empty liquor bottles on Lucio's floor to her backpack. There she extracted a small box with a calavera mark on it. Lucio eyed the mysterious box as she carefully removed from it a small twisted baggy with a heel of white powder. Immediately he knew what it was, but before Lucio could object, Lolita sprung up. She'd noticed as well.

"Oh my God, yes, please!"

Sombra also extracted a hardcover programming textbook on cybersecurity and plopped it on Lucio’s mattress as Lolita went to her clutch for a credit card.

"You can keep it, daddy cut me off," she said handing the card to Sombra.

Lucio watched as Sombra began to break down the coke on the book so it was ultra-fine. _Cool, Lucio, just stay very cool,_ he coached himself. He felt very uneasy about hard drugs. He distracted himself.

"You can program?" asked Lucio noticing the book.

"Can she program?" Lolita asked rhetorically, “you don’t know about baby girl, she’s a computer scientist”

"Dang, that's cool. So what languages do you know?"

"I know C, C#, C++, LISP, Java, JavaScript, Ruby, Python, Haskell, Pascal, Perl, MATLAB, Nasm, OCaml-," Sombra rattled off quickly as she cut up the cocaine.

"Damn!" Lucio exclaimed.

"-SQL, PHP, CUDA... I think that's it"

"How do you even hold that in your brain?"

"I dunno," she said lifting her head from the coke, "I don't really, every language is the same, mostly I just take a bunch of speed and read documentation..." She started scraping the coke into fat lines. "I just get it, I have since I was like 12. It's just genes, I guess. I gotta thank my dead ass parents for something," she said with a furrowed brow. She finished. "Roll over, Lolita. I need your butt"

"Is this your dare?"

"Yeah"

"I like it..." Lolita mused.

She smirked and rolled on her front. Sombra scraped a line off onto her peach shaped rear.

"That feels kinda funny..." she said resuming her baby voice.

Sombra took a plastic cylindrical object from her drug stash and held it to her nose as she insufflated the line off of Lolita's butt. "Oh!" she said in surprise, "that feels nice..." The sensation seemed to excite her. Sombra pulled away and shook out her left hand as she tapped on her nostril.

"Take this," she said handing him the cylinder with a red face, "like it? It's a tampon applicator"

Lucio chuckled. "Yeah, its very hard-femme"

Lolita squeaked with amusement. "L-o-l, Sombra's not hard-femme. I'm hard-femme, she's tomboy-femme"

"Oh yeah, what makes you hard-femme?" asked Sombra skeptically, "you're just regular femme"

"First off," she said lifting her head and looking over her shoulder, "I carry a brick in my purse"

"You just have this tiny clutch..."

"I have a knife in that clutch that I fucking stab people with. Second, I'm a crazy bitch, I murder people for fun, that makes me pretty hard"

Lucio laughed, "I just can't take you seriously with that voice"

"What? No fair, it's my voice!" Lolita whined with a pout, "I'm tough!"

"She's not joking, look at her tears," said Sombra raising an eyebrow at Lucio. He looked at Lolita, she narrowed her skulled face and looked back seductively as if she were posing for a photoshoot. He could see three tattooed tears next to her left eye. Slowly and with horror, Lucio realized that Lolita hadn't painted her face, her _calavera_ was actually a massive permanent tattoo.

"That's one per person, __cabron__ ," said Sombra smiling perversely, "but don't think about it too much, just snort coke off this hot chick's ass"

She gave Lolita's butt a smack and she gasped and wiggled enticingly. An overwhelming feeling of alienation overcame Lucio.

 _What. The. Hell._   _Am I doing?_ He thought as Sombra made his line. He eyed the line on Lolita's butt apprehensively. Sombra snaked her head into his view.

"Got an issue?" she asked.

"Naw, just never done this before..."

"Aw, baby. You'll like it," coaxed Lolita.

How could he refuse? He railed it like a pro. Lolita gave an involuntary smile at the curious sensation on her butt. She was loving the idea of being the centerpiece.

"Like that? It numbs your face, right?" laughed Sombra as Lucio fell back coughing and rattling his nose, "OK, Lola, it's your turn"

"Um, Lucio?" Lolita asked cloyingly as she sat up, "I'd like to do a line off your butt if that's OK"

Lucio eyed Sombra apprehensively and she returned a pervy smile. The drugs were coming on fast, he felt the start of a climbing sensation of megalomania. He was down for whatever.

"Heh," he chuckled as he wiped his nose, "yeah, sure thing"

"Don't act so awkward," Sombra snapped.

Lucio shifted his eyes betraying that he was a little put off. Sombra noticed.

"Ahh!" she fake yelled as she rolled her eyes, "I'm sorry! Don't be mad, pleeaase! I'm an asshole. Here, just lie down"

Sombra gently motioned for him to turn over. Lucio lay down resting his chin on his forearms.

"He's so lithe but like muscular," said Lolita running her hand down his back. "I love his butt"

"Yeah, he's got the body of like a chick who works out..." commented Sombra, "it's really too bad he's not a girl"

"Don't change a thing, Lucio," Lolita joked as she ran her hand over his biceps and shoulder.

"Look, he's smiling!" said Sombra laughing, "he likes it! You're a fucking queer, Lucio. You like being objectified"

"Just keep talking like I'm not here, ladies. It's doing incredible stuff for my confidence"

The coke was starting to make Lucio a little more twisted. The dares had been pushed pretty far but not exactly in his favor. It was not in his character but something in him wanted to do something bad. He had two vicious girls to play with. He wanted to take control of the situation.

"So, wanna snort coke off my dick after this?" he propositioned.

Sombra blinked.

"Real party animal over here," she joked as Lolita railed her line, "is that a dare?"

Lucio nodded with a grin. Lolita finished her line then squeaked with pleasure as she fell back.

"Oh man, I'm a huge coke head," she said between sniffs as she rubbed her nose with her wrists.

"Hey, Lola, want to snort coke off this asshole's dick?"

"Yeeeaaaah," she replied drunkenly as she rolled her eyes.

Sombra gave him a malicious look.

"I dunno, I don't think a good line will fit on half an inch," she said barely containing her laughter

"Jesus Christ, I'm outta here," said Lucio sitting up.

"No don't go, that's the last one, I promise," snickered Sombra, "I just like picking on boys. You can take it, right?" She looked at him with her seductive eyes to try to bring him back. He nodded. "OK, bro, bring that thing over here," she said.

Lucio took off his boxer-briefs much to Lolita’s delight and then walked on his knees towards Sombra. His movement caused his half-erect penis to subtly wag which Sombra somewhat ridiculous. When he was in position, she looked at his dick then looked at him.

"OK, so I'm not even trying to make fun of you but I think you have to be harder for this to work," she said with an incredulous expression.

Lucio responded with a flat smile.

"Oh, I can help!" said Lolita bringing her hands to her chest then waving one hand up as if she was volunteering, "I love his dick, plus like, giving head on coke is my favorite. Come here, baby"

"You're lucky, Lolita charges a ton of money for head," said Sombra with a grin.

Before he could rationalize what Sombra had said, Lolita was enthusiastically sucking him off. She wasn't lying, she was quite good. Lolita looked up at Lucio with her big brown eyes as she went down on him. She was an other worldly sight, her ornate sugar skull tattoo made it look like someone had stitched her lips together around his cock. He was quickly distracted by the overwhelming sensation. Lucio instinctively grabbed the back of her head as she worked him. Sombra rested her cheek on her knuckles watching them intently.

"I like watching you, Lucio," said Sombra taking a somewhat bored yet wistful tone, "but I think I really want to see you with a guy"

Lolita pulled away and smiled. "Yeah, that would be fun to watch," she said with perverse enthusiasm, "this is fun too though..."

Sombra looked aside as she laughed, trying not to betray how much the thought was a real turn on for her. She turned her attention to cutting her coke.

"Lolita," said Sombra wistfully, "that's Nabokov"

Lolita pulled away again and started pumping Lucio's dick.

"Yeah, that's right," she replied in her sugary voice.

She looked at Lucio longingly.

"How old are you?" Sombra asked.

She laughed.

"I'm too old for all this..."

"When did you run away? Everyone makes it sound like it was barely a month ago"

"When I was 17. Years and years ago..."

"So what is it really?" asked Lucio.

Lolita rolled her eyes. "Whatever you want, baby. I can be 17," she joked as she slowly masturbated Lucio, "when you gonna cum for me, Lucio?"

He got bashful again. Lucio felt intimidated by Lolita, it was somehow aggressive how effeminate and accommodating she was.

"Hey, we need that thing working if we're gonna do coke off it," said Sombra, "I can't believe I'm doing this... OK, dry it off"

Lucio grabbed his underwear and wiped himself off before stepping over to Sombra. She'd cut up the coke on a page she tore out from a CS textbook on caching and page files.

"Alright," said Sombra looking at Lucio as if he were a big joke, "you can keep it up right?"

"Pff, yeah, no problem"

"Because if you get coke dick and waste my stuff..." said Sombra intentionally stalling.

"Damn it, Sombra!"

She raised an eyebrow.

"Anxious?" she asked viciously.

"No!"

"Oh my God, Sombra I just want to do coke!" groaned Lolita.

"OK OK!"

She lifted the paper then cracked a self-amused smile as she held Lucio's dick and carefully poured out a line of cocaine across it. "Now my hand is gonna smell like dick," she complained, "OK, Lolita you first"

She squealed and clapped excitedly before hustling over on her knees. She assumed the position, seductively arching her back as she sat.

"Hey, Lucio," she said giving him a coy look. She held her left nostril and railing the line off his dick in one go. "Waaaooow," she said lying back, "tick that one off the bucket list"

Sombra titled her head up at Lucio with a toothy grin. "You liking this?"

"Heh," replied Lucio concentrating on keeping his erection.

"I love girls, they are so much fun," she said in an almost confrontational tone as she made her line, "don't you agree?"

"Yeah, you're incredible," Lucio replied, at a loss for words.

Lolita covered her mouth as she giggled.

"I'm not a girl," said Sombra coolly, "hold still"

She railed the line.

"Hup, I guess boys are fun too," she said lifting her head and shaking her wrist out.

"Come here, baby," said Lolita reaching for Sombra. She grabbed her and pulled her towards herself. "You're so hot, Sombra..." she groaned jokingly as she lazily touched her face.

Sombra sought Lolita's fingers and delicately sucked them.

"Hey, Lucio, its my turn to dare..." she said draping herself on Lolita, "what do you think, Lola? What should I have him do?"

Lolita turned her vicious eyes to Lucio and gave him the up and down. She held her gaze on his crotch and bit her lip.

"I know what he could do..."

Lucio swallowed. It was now all too absurd. They were all naked or pretty much naked. The inevitable could only be delayed for so long.

His eyes wandered up the topless Los Muertos girl's body to her eyes. All pretense to tell her boyfriend was gone from her, her large brown eyes said she was down to fuck. It occurred to him that, besides her tattoos, she was quite enticing even if she truly wasn't his type. Sombra was the one he wanted. He looked at them together with their bronze and brown skin and tried to access the rising sense of confidence and egomania he was getting from the drugs. He felt at the cusp of something. Sombra detected his nervousness.

"Relax, nothing's easier than fucking right?" she said.

"I'm ready for you, baby..." coaxed Lolita as she held Sombra seductively.

Sombra slinked out of her lingerie with an expert motion undoing the clasp on her bra then reached for a bottle of liquor on his nightstand. took a suicidal gulp. Once she cleared it she tossed it to the floor.

"Heh," said Lucio timidly.

"Come here," said Sombra drunkenly as she reached for him, "be bad with me"

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally I left this out but I felt it made Sombra's reaction the next chapter too traumatized. Its more like she overindulged, not that something bad happened to her.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sombra has a rough morning but then comes around to Lucio.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BOPE: Batalhão de Operações Policiais Especiais (BOPE) literally "Police Special Operations Battalion" or BOPE is a special police unit of the Military Police of Rio de Janeiro State (PMERJ) in Brazil. Due to the nature of crime in favelas, BOPE units have extensive experience in urban warfare as well as progression in confined and restricted environments. It also utilizes equipment deemed more powerful than traditional civilian law enforcement.

“ _All unregistered humans and omnics please report to the nearest Vishkar liaison office, police station, or designated registration site with valid identification. Remember, registration is mandatory. We apologize for the inconvenience. Vishkar, building a better future for humanity..._ ”

Sombra awoke in a cold sweat in Lucio's bed from an anxiety dream. The obnoxious message from the speaker tower had woken her up. When she saw where she was she planted her face in her hands.

“Oh God, what did I do?” moaned Sombra as she looked around, “what the fuck happened last night?”

Lolita stirred and got up, when she saw Sombra’s state she wrapped her arms around her.

“Aww, honey, you don't remember?”

“Lola? Did we-? Where are we?” said Sombra starting to panic, “I don't remember... Fuck, I didn't take my medication”

Lucio shifted and Sombra jumped. “Who is that?”

“Um, its Lucio...”

“Lucio?” asked Sombra tearfully.

“Yep,” he said lifting his hand and pointing at the ceiling.

“Did we?”

Lucio took a breath through his nose and was struck by the odor of alcohol. He reflexively huffed to get it out then sat up and rubbed his eyes.

He assumed she was talking about having sex. They’d done pretty much everything except penetration. They'd gotten fairly heavy with each other but every time when he was right at the cusp she would twist herself away with a smile and tell him to have fun with Lolita. She was much keener to watch him and Lolita.

“Yeah, we kind of did... are you OK?”

She threw her hand down on the pillow then ripped off the sheets in anger.

“Hey, hey!” complained Lucio.

Sombra got up and began rummaging around the room for her backpack. A feeling of dread began to brew in Lucio when he saw her face, it felt like he'd done something really awful.

“Fuck, I'm _really_ not supposed to miss my medication,” she insisted as she frantically searched.

“Baby girl, you're fine, it was fine last night. We just had a bit of fun...” coaxed Lolita.

“You don't understand, Lola. It fucks with my head. When I drink and don't get enough sleep I feel like I want to kill myself.” Sombra searched for a few more seconds before finally coming upon her backpack. She emptied out its contents onto the floor but didn't appear to find what she was looking for. “ _Fuuck,_ ” she moaned as she sat on Lucio's floor and put her hand to her forehead in frustration, “I can't keep doing this...”

“Hey, Sombra,” asked Lucio timidly, “what are you looking for?” She didn't appear to hear. “Sombra?”

“What?!” she snapped.

“What is it you're looking for?”

She flopped her arm to the floor in an exasperated gesture. “My box with the _calavera_ on it, there's a vial in it...”

“I'm sorry, what's it look like?”

Lucio was trying to take care to not come across as impatient but his hangover was formidable.

“Its got the fucking candy skull,” she clarified.

He crawled out of bed. When Sombra saw his exposed penis she quickly averted her eyes in disgust. Lucio got the sense that Sombra found him offensive in every way so he tried to move around her in a way that minimized his presence. Lolita watched him with an infatuated look but when she saw Sombra's reaction she rushed over to comfort her.

“Why do I keep doing this?” Sombra asked her miserably.

“Shhh,” Lolita hushed her, “its fine, baby. I'm here”

Lucio found the box on his dresser and handed it to Sombra with his free hand as he covered himself with the other. She ungratefully swiped it out of his grasp and rummaged through pulling out a small orange prescription vial. She emptied out two pills and popped them in her mouth.

“Its not even going to work,” she moaned, “I'm supposed to take it before I sleep...”

“Just give it time, it'll make you feel better”

“Hey, whats going on with her?” asked Lucio as he got dressed.

Somehow the scene of two beautiful naked girls sitting in his room was not what he'd expected. Lucio knew he was cool with Lolita but he was really worried about Sombra. She looked pale and unhealthy. Her face was gaunt with stress.

“Um, Sombra takes something to help her sleep”

Sombra chuckled morbidly. “I take it so I don't kill myself,” she corrected.

“Come on, lets get you off the floor and into your clothes, yeah?” said Lolita standing up.

Sombra stayed on the floor and hung her head.

“Sombraa,” whined Lolita, “you can't right now, we're in someone else's apartment!”

“If you guys need to be alone, I'll step out. Or if you need anything, I can get it for you, really,” assured Lucio.

“That'd be great, Lucio,” Lolita replied a little impatiently, “thank you”

Lucio paused quickly raising his eyebrows at her reaction. “OK...” He stepped out and closed the door behind him with a sigh. Lucio overheard snippets of their conversation which seemed to be steaming towards a confrontation as he walked into his kitchen.

“Its OK, Sombra. He fucked me, not you... Umm, you kissed him and touched his dick... No, you didn't let him... Why did I let you? Sombra, you were bossing me around!”

The rest turned into rather argumentative sounding Spanish. Lucio sat at his kitchen counter waiting for his coffee to finish. He was pouring it when Lolita and Sombra stormed out of his room in a full blown argument. Lucio's hungover mind vaguely recalled a guy friend warning him with a half-way bragging anecdote about threesomes but couldn't remember what it was. The gist, however, was that they never worked out.

Lolita approached him with her hand around her purse strap. “Hey, Lucio,” she said in a passive aggressive singsong, “I had a great time. Can I have your number?”

He gave an ambiguous nod, “Alight...” 

She handed him her phone and he punched in his number. Sombra and Lolita exchanged dagger eyes.

“Thanks,” she replied, “I guess Sombra is finding her own way home. I'll see you around”

Lolita gave Lucio a quick but breasty hug before stepping out of his apartment.

She was gone.

He turned to Sombra. What the hell was he going to do with her?

“Are you OK?”

“No,” she said moodily, “she was supposed to watch me so I didn't get out of control." Sombra sighed. "Look, I'm sorry. I'll get out of here, I just need to sleep for a few hours”

Lucio involuntarily sniffed. His right nostril felt like a smoke stack. Why did he do coke last night? He never did coke and had strong feelings against it. It was like this girl swam into his head.

“Yeah, whatever you need...” he replied.

* * *

Lucio was sitting at his kitchen counter nonchalantly listening to his expensive headphones as he browsed his tag on SoundCloud when he received an ominous text from his friend Otavio.  _Are you alive?_  He received two others in short succession after:  _BOPE completely shut the whole place down last night, they were looking for you._ He took off his headphones and stared at the texts. What did BOPE want with him? 

He began to feel the bite of anxiety as Sombra stepped in.

“Hey, I'm feeling better,” she said, “I'm starting to remember, its fine. I just- I've had a lot of bad hookups. Sorry for the panic”

Lucio forced himself to turn his attention to Sombra. “Uh, no problem”

“So, I have kind of bad news. Lolita and her boyfriend were sort of my ride”

“I can get you a ride”

“Back to Mexico?”

This gave Lucio pause. “Yeah, you have a point. Maybe more like a plane ticket...” he replied.

“That's the other thing, I'm broke,” said Sombra slapping her sides. “So, its couch surfing and ride shares.”

Lucio cleared his throat. “You could stay here,” he offered.

“Thanks,” she said in a snide tone but then caught herself. “Uh, I don't know why I said it like that... thank you, I'll try not to fuck it up”

“Sure thing,” he said brushing off the unusual slight.

“Seriously, couch surfing is horrible, every person I've stayed with has tried to have sex with me...” They stared at each other awkwardly for a moment as they realized they would probably have to get to know each other. She cleared her throat. “So, whaddaya want to do?”

“No, idea... fix my hangover, I guess.”

Sombra gave a quick half-smile.

“How about you tell me what happened last night?”


	5. Chapter 5

It was Sunday. Sombra and Lucio walked hungoverly under an overcast sky towards a joint Lucio often haunted after a heavy night of drinking. Both of them were in a strange mood but they seemed to be getting along. Lucio made sure to give Sombra space as they walked side by side so he wouldn't be an imposing presence. They looked out towards the street and the buildings from behind their sunglasses as they walked.

“Strange, its almost empty,” noted Sombra, “its refreshing, I don’t really want to see people today.” Lucio hmm'd but then was silent, not knowing how to carry on the conversation. He was good with girls but Sombra was so strange and his hangover was starting to eat at him. Sombra gave him a sly smile. “So, some night you had. You got to hang out with two pervy girls”

“Its not quite what I expected...”

She cocked her head. “Aw, _pobricito_ , did you at least have fun?”

“Something like that...”

Suddenly, they heard commotion as they rounded the corner onto a wide street where Lucio intended to catch a trolley.

“What the hell is this?” asked Sombra peering over her Clubmans.

A small column of men and women in business suits were promenading down the main drag in formation escorted by mounted police. Residents were huddling up against the area cordoned off for the march but were being forced to the side walk.

“I’m not sure...”

“Well, I don’t wanna get involved...” she started to say before she realized Lucio was already booking it towards the commotion, “Hey!”

Sombra ran to his side as he pushed into the crowd. He stretched his neck out to look over the bobbing heads of the disgruntled crowd.

“Fucking Vishkar, they think they can shut down the city just so their boss can take a tour...” a disgruntled old woman murmured.

“Who’s that?” Lucio asked.

“Vishkar exec, Bhargavi or something”

Shouts came from an armored policeman, “I said get back to the curb! Back!”

He pushed against the crowd with his shield. The sudden force almost knocked several people over.

“Hey cool it, man!”

More officers made their way over to assist and the small mass reluctantly made its way to the sidewalk. Shouts of “shame” curses, and discontented murmurs came from the crowd.

“You’re Vishkar’s dog, asshole”

Sombra’s eyes narrowed on the mounted officer’s truncheons.

“Hey, Lucio, lets get out of here, I really don’t like horses,” she said nervously.

“What?”

“I hate animals, I don’t know... do we really need to be here?”

Lucio blinked. The crowd looked rowdy. He needed to be here in case something went down. He took out his phone and frantically texted Otavio. _Some Vishkar director is passing through my neighborhood. How come we didn’t know about this?_ Almost immediately he could see Otavio typing. _Where have you been?_ _I’ve been trying to get a hold of you_ _,_ he replied. _Can’t, I’m there now._ He stared intensely at his screen for a moment. No response.

The situation seemed tense. He opened his video app and started recording the police.

Sombra tugged on Lucio’s arm.

“Lucio...”

The suited men and women, mostly Vishkar employees and some city residents, carried printed picket signs showing their support for Vishkar’s project. The words _Rejuvenescência_ and _Utopia_ in boldface were common along with company slogans and try hard signs showing statistics demonstrating how Vishkar had improved Rio.

“This is weird,” muttered Lucio noticing the signs, “what are they trying to do?”

“Fucking, Lucio!” Sombra shouted as she stamped her foot.

“What?!” he snapped

“I want to leave!”

Suddenly, a water balloon full of red paint landed in the middle of the marchers. Scattered shouts of confusion emerged from the onlookers and the marchers alike. Lucio swung his head to try to glimpse where the balloon had come from. The Brazilians marching with the Vishkar exchanged nervous glances while Vishkar seemed to be paralyzed with shock and rage. Like lighting the cops protecting the marchers had their mouths to their shoulders, talking into their walkie-takies, however, none of them made a move or went for their weapons.

“What are you trying to do!?” someone shouted up from the sidewalk.

Another balloon was flung from an apartment window overlooking the street. Again, it splattered on the Vishkar employees dousing them in red paint. A few Vishkar men pulled the signage off their picket signs and cracked the post in half. The marching Brazilians quickly ran to them to try and calm them down.

The onlookers’ reaction was split with elements variously cheering and cursing out the attackers. Their reaction was only momentary, however. The third balloon hit and the Vishkar rushed past the cordons, viciously attacking the crowd with their sticks.

The police looked on.

“Sombra!” Lucio shouted.

He grabbed her hand and pulled her to him so he could shield her from the surging crowd.

“Get me the fuck out of here!” she cursed.

“I got you”

The onlookers swayed back and fell before the onslaught then suddenly pushed forward. The Vishkar marchers were severely outnumbered by the crowd but were not deterred. They wailed on them with furious blows before their sticks were pulled out of their hands or they broke from the force of their blows. Lucio and Sombra swayed with the crowd. He planted himself and held his elbows out to protect her to the best of his ability.

When the police saw the Vishkar were outmatched they reacted immediately. The mounted police charged into the onlookers with their truncheons and started cracking skulls.

The crowd surged away from the police allowing Sombra and Lucio to run.

As they made their escape their eardrums were suddenly pierced by a high-pitched alarm. Sombra was stunned from the shock of the noise and excessive stimulation.

“Agh, I can’t stand it!” she screamed as she covered her ears.

Lucio saw she’d stopped in the street and ran to her side. As a fleeing person fell next to her after taking a strike to the head from a mounted officer, Sombra felt herself starting to panic. A deep feeling of dread hit her heart. She shut her eyes.

Suddenly, through the noise she heard Lucio as if he were shouting underwater.

“Come on, we gotta go! We’re almost clear!”

She opened her eyes to see his extended hand. Sombra looked up at him to see his concerned expression as people rushed past her. No other choice. She let go of her ears, allowing the horrific sound to seep in, and took his hand.

They ran.

* * * 

Lucio stood propping himself up on his knees and panting. They'd cleared the violence and found themselves on an empty street corner underneath an old low-rise building. The street was almost empty save a convenience store while the rest were boarded up, scheduled for demolition by Vishkar. A small number of confused and winded protesters trickled onto the empty street. As they regained their breath they tried to reconnect with the friends or family they'd been with, taking to their phones or sporadically shouting their names. Others stood in a daze.

The piercing alarm sound, now several blocks away, railed harmlessly in the distance.

“Wooo!” Lucio shouted as he gave his head a quick shake, “can you hear me?”

Sombra was leaning against a building resting her head against the back of her hand as she caught her breath.

“Yeah, asshole...” she replied then swallowed.

“Heh, nothing like a good run from the cops to wake you up”  

“Oh my God, I hate crowds, I hate running, I hate loud noises. I haven’t done anything physical in years...” griped Sombra between breaths.

“Years? Why?”

“I dunno, _cabron_. Depression?” she quipped. Lucio blinked. “Aiiee, what the fuck was that?!” she moaned as she stretched her back, “that was so fucked up!”

“That’s Vishkar for you...”

“And the hell was that sound?”

“Its Vishkar tech, some kind of modified sound cannon. They have towers covering the city with them,” he gave an exhausted gesture with his wrist in the direction of an imposing tower, “its how they blast those obnoxious announcements”

The noise from the sound cannon stopped. Lucio took several deep breaths to even out his panting then stood up. His brain had been burnt from last night's revelry and his hangover. Now he felt morally realigned.

“Man, I gotta go back”

“What? Why?”

“People were getting trampled, I need to help them...”

Sombra gave him an incredulous look.

“What? No. What are you going to do, _pendejo?_ ” Lucio scratched the back of his head. He wasn't sure but his conviction was strong, he would help if he could. “Come on, Lucio!” she shouted impatiently. He put his hands on his hips, he wasn’t having it. Sombra huffed and hung her head. “Sorry, I’m just a bit overwhelmed.” She slumped down and sat cross-legged with her back against the building. “Let me just catch my breath...”

Lucio sat next to her and she put her legs up.

“Are you OK?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she said resentfully, “no ones ever done anything like that for me”

“I’m sure you have friend’s that would do the same”

“Pfft, _no._ ” she replied bitterly.

Lucio looked towards the street when he heard sudden shouting. A few people from the crowd were walking a dude in his mid 20's towards a corner store as he held his eyes and wailed in pain. One of the group ran into the shop and came out with a bottle of milk as another helped him out of his shirt. They poured the milk into the young man's eyes and his wailing subsided.

“Look at what they are doing to us, man. Vishkar owns this city,” said Lucio flicking his hand towards the afflicted man.

Sombra perked up her head to watch the group of young people sit down in exhaustion and share a bottle of water.

“Looks like we got out before they hit 'em with teargas, I know that scene anywhere,” she said grabbing her legs and resting her chin on her knees, “we’re lucky”

“Yeah, lucky.” Lucio picked up a pebble and threw it on the pavement. “I can’t believe this... lets go back,” he said sitting up impatiently.

Sombra tugged on Lucio’s sleeve.

“OK, but seriously though. What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know, something!” he snapped as he tugged away from her.

“Whoa, cool it”

“Yeah, I know, can’t get violent,” Lucio sighed.

Sombra blinked then grinned morbidly.

“Who said anything about getting violent? I really think they’ve made it violent already, _cabron_ ”

“I just don’t know what else to do...”

Sombra sat up and held her palms out.

“Alright, you want to go? We can go. I just think this is a shit first date.” Somewhere between Lucio’s hangover and endorphins from running or moral outrage and having been slightly punch drunk from the action there was another feeling: he felt his heart leap. Sombra noticed he was looking at her weirdly. “You OK, _cabron_?”

“Yeah!” he coughed, “just a little scattered”

Sombra eyed him skeptically then gave a bemused smile.

“Here, you can hold my hand.” She took his hand in hers. They made eyes at each other for a moment when Lucio began to tug her absent mindedly in the direction of the march. She tugged him back. “Heh, no running, _cabron._ ” Sombra eyed him inquisitively. He looked impatient but she detected a blush. “What’s with you? You really just want to get back there?”

“Yeah, I gotta help,” he muttered.

“I can’t believe you. You’re like a golden retriever puppy...” Lucio squared his jaw and continued to looking in the direction of the march with determination. Sombra found him utterly baffling. "OK, hero. Lets go"


	6. Chapter 6

Sombra and Lucio stood on a street corner near where the violence had transpired earlier. Traffic resumed but some armored police were still either milling about or standing around looking imposing in pairs. A news van with its transmission antennae extended sat nearby. Lucio figured it was as good a time as any to get back to his mate. He dialed his number. Sombra entertained herself by walking heel-toe along the curb trying to keep her balance.

"Man, I have been trying to get a hold of you since yesterday! The police were looking for you! Does that not seem important?"

Lucio held the phone away from his ear slightly and turned the volume down. Sombra paused and gave Lucio a look when she heard the voice.

"Its Otavio. He's a little excitable"

"I don't know him," she replied flatly.

He returned to the phone. "I'm hanging out with a girl. What happened?"

"Why you-!" Otavio caught himself. "OK, BOPE shut down the party and forced everyone to go home, said it was drug related. But there was something else. There was an Indian dude with them, a high level Vishkar, a friend of mine says he's Sanjay, that's Symmetra's personal assistant" 

"What?"

"Yeah, there's something going on, I learned today that they hit a bunch of night clubs and house parties all over the city at around the same time last night. They must have known it was the start of the spring music carnival. They grabbed Luisa and held her for questioning, I guess she got out this morning but she said that they arrested a number of musicians and people in the scene. She said they were asking for you. I don't know, man. Its fucked up. You have to lay low"

"I can't, I got shows to play! And there's the Vishkar press conference coming up, its gonna be huge"

"Well, cancel the shows and fucking lay low until then, OK? You can't make a scene if you're in jail"

"What about the march-parade thing today? What was that about?"

"Its all over social media. They're saying _we_ made it violent, the animals. But that was Bhargavi, she's Vishkar's new director of public relations. I don't know, her visit wasn't listed on their website's upcoming events until today. You wouldn't believe, they said that the people marching represented a  _Vishkar movement._ They're not content to just shut us down, they want to plagiarize and erase us"

"That's fucking nuts, we've been trying to get the permit for May 1st for months and they can hold a march whenever they feel like it?" Lucio's eyes panned the street and caught a police stingray rounding the corner further up. "Whoops, gotta go," he interrupted.

He thumbed the 'end call' button on his phone and turned to Sombra.

"How you doing?" he asked.

He thought Sombra was taking this all surprisingly well, considering her mood.

"I could use that drink..." she said.

* * *

“Oh man,” said Sombra sipping a bloody mary wearing her Clubman sunglasses. Lucio had just finished explaining how the previous night went down. “It was really just a matter of time until I slept with Lolita”

They sat under the shade of an umbrella in an upscale outdoor bar whose aesthetic seemed to be that it was trying hard to not look upscale. The early spring day was cool and bright. The clouds were starting to clear above their heads.

“Oh yeah, why's that?”

She looked up to hide her awkward smile and fake groaned then looked back at Lucio.

“I think you know, _cabron,_ ” she said. Lucio simply shook his head with a playful smile, he did know but he didn't want to offend her. Sombra looked over her sunglasses. “I can tell what you're thinking, _culo_. You're an easy read”

“I'm not saying anything”

“We're both sluts”

“I was going to say she was garbage”

“Hey, that's my friend you're talking about,” she snapped jokingly. They sat in amused silence for a moment sipping their drinks. Sombra leaned in her chair resting her arm on its back as she scanned the joint. “Man, Lucio. This place is bougie. You come here often?”

Lucio felt self-embarrassed. He knew the owner, he’d wanted to open a place that did brunch with comfort food and American cocktails after partying in Brooklyn. He cleared his throat. “Yeah, with my friends after we go hard. A few of 'em might be here”

“I don't want to see them,” she laughed condescendingly, “like, really”

Lucio smirked. “OK, word,” he replied, “but yeah, this neighborhood was up and coming but Vishkar has plans to redo the whole thing. The guy who owns the place has been scrambling to make back his investment but he’ll be evicted once they decide to start construction”

“Yeah, that sucks,” she said sounding only half interested. Lucio concluded Sombra wasn’t really into politics. She sipped her drink and looked at it curiously. “You know, this is my first bloody mary”

Lucio leaned back in his chair. “Its an American thing. What do you think?”

She stuck out her tongue.

“Tastes weird, but I like the alcohol,” she replied. She noticed Lucio was holding his smirk. “What? You think you’re better than me, _cabron_?”

“Nah, you’re just different”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“I get vibes from you, a lot of different vibes”

“Right,” she replied flatly.

“Is last night starting to come back?”

Sombra shook her head ‘no’ and gave an ambiguous smile.

“I’d rather not remember what I do when I’m that drunk”

“Happen a lot?”

“Yeah, more than I like,” she said enigmatically then turned her attention to the menu.

Lucio watched her face as she panned through, he could almost see her neurons firing.

“Want help?”

“No,” she replied flatly, “I learned some Portuguese on the way down.”

He was totally unconvinced but said nothing. After some time she folded the menu. Lucio did the same and the waiter approached. Sombra took off her sunglasses, cleared her throat and began to ask questions about their quesadilla in somewhat stilted Portuguese with her heavy Mexican accent. To Lucio's disbelief and the waiter's amusement, she was actually fairly intelligible. When she was sure she wanted it she gave specific instructions for preparation. The waiter laughed and said he understood then asked how long she'd been studying Portuguese.

“A couple of days,” she replied.

The waiter, who otherwise hated foreigners and tourists, nodded in approval. He was honestly impressed. He turned to Lucio who was staring at Sombra agape. Quickly he collected himself and made his order as she grinned a coy grin at him.

“Sombra, how did you..?” he stumbled, “a couple of days? I mean, you made mistakes but, damn, people can't do that in a year!”

“It was nothing...” She shook hair and put her sunglasses on with an air of superiority. “But I've just decided, I'm not going to learn Portuguese”

“What? Why?”

“Its too sexy”

“Too sexy?” he asked in bewilderment, “I can't believe you, you can't remember last night and you can learn a language in a few days?”

“What can I say? You can't have everything”

“So where do you go to college?”

Something ran afoul in Sombra. “I'm too old for college,” she said resentfully then took a sip of her cocktail. Lucio blinked. Sombra took off her glasses and looked at him with a moody pout. “I'm 26.” She said it as if she were swearing. “Its too old”

“I thought you were-”

“Younger? No”

“But you're incredibly smart, I bet you could get in, probably with a full ride”

Sombra took out her straw and tapped it against the table a few times.

“Yeah, I'm a smart girl,” she admitted sarcastically, “but I’m pretty stupid when it comes to life skills.” She looked off to the side as if remembering something then downed the rest of her cocktail. It occurred to Lucio to tell her that wasn't the way you were supposed to drink a bloody mary but decided against it.

“I have to say, these things are a little gross,” she said sticking out her tongue.

“They're supposed to be like refreshing,” Lucio noted, “want something else?”

“I have to watch it so I don't, you know—,” she pointed to her head and twirled her finger about, “—lose it again but, yeah”

“How about Mimosas?”

She wagged her finger at him.

“Wait a sec, you tryna get me drunk, _cabron?_ Nothing's gonna happen between you and me.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” said Lucio with a coy smile.

“Well, I have no idea what a Mimosa is. So, sure thing _._ ” She rested her chin on her knuckles and eyed the bar watching the customers for a moment. “Man, you really are a bougie piece of shit, Lucio. Your music videos made me think you were like living in the _favela_ ”

“No way. This is an indulgence, I should be trying to figure out how I'm going to make enough money to drop my new album,” he said flagging the waiter down.

Sombra smiled condescendingly. “I forget sometimes that I'm talking to ‘thee Lucio,'” she said taking her sunglasses off again, “maybe I should try harder to get you to like me”

“No, I like it, its different.”

“Oh yeah, I bet you're used to people trying to get you to like them.” Lucio shrugged confidently. “Whoa, calm down there, big guy. You’re still underground, you’re not famous yet.”

“Not yet but when the new album drops I'll be worldwide...”

Their food arrived and Sombra received her complicated gourmet quesadilla. They gave her silverware but she opted to eat it with her hands.

She took a bite.

“The fuck? Where's the spice? I told them to make it hot”

“Send it back,” said Lucio almost automatically.

Sombra blinked incredulously and Lucio kicked himself for again outing himself as a rich kid.

“Eh? I dunno, they like made it for me so I’ll eat it,” she said giving him a curious look, “like, its good but back home I could get this for like nothing and its soo spicy...”

"Man, I can't believe you came to Rio to eat Mexican food..."

She took another bite with a snide look then suddenly blinked.

“Whoops, OK, there's something!” she laughed putting the quesadilla down. She chewed and regained her composure. “Ah, that's how I like it, its like a little orgasm.”

“Brazilians can do spice but we're not infatuated with it. It can be overpowering. Try this,” he said holding his fork out across the table.

Sombra’s eyes shifted as she tried to think of a way to move so she wouldn’t expose herself too much. She decided to say _fuck it_ and leaned across the table. They made eye contact as she bit, Lucio tipped the fork up so she would extend her neck slightly causing Sombra to smile. A few older patrons gave them looks. He pulled the fork out of her mouth and nonchalantly turned to look at them as if to say, ‘Yeah, I am with a hot girl. Got a problem?’ They turned away.

“Wow, that’s good! What is that?”

“Spicy right? But not too much. Its feijoada, its like Brazilian soul food”

“OK,” she said nodding her head in approval, “I’m starting to get rich people food... shame I’m a fucking peasant”

“Rich people? Its just Brazilian food—”

At that moment an odd looking armored car with an array of cameras on the roof arranged to give 360 degree coverage rolled into Lucio’s view. It was Vishkar.

“Sombra, duck!” hissed Lucio, “hide in your chair!”

She was immediately game. Sombra sunk in the chair and hid her profile. Lucio’s eyes tracked the vehicle as it passed by. He signaled to Sombra when it was gone.

“What the fuck was that?” she asked sitting up.

“Vishkar surveyor, its a vehicle that collects data on the buildings and people here. They claim its just a way of gathering architectural data or taking measurements but if you’re seen with a person they don’t recognize Vishkar shows up at your doorstep with the police and starts asking questions”

“Why the hell would they do that?”

“Supposedly its to keep their census data accurate, all part of their ‘scientific planning.’ But I think its to scare foreigners away so no one knows whats going on here”

“Jeeze, they’re allowed to do that?”

“Yep, you didn’t notice the police, the surveillance cameras, the big ass speaker towers? They’ve taken over. They won the contract to redevelop Rio De Janiero and they practically turned into the new government”

“You know, not really. I’ve been trying to shut it all out to be honest”

“It really pisses me off. They’re supposed to be redeveloping the _favelas_ but they don’t give a shit about the people who actually live here. They’re using our money to bulldoze our neighborhoods and build a bunch of bullshit. Its all parks, shopping complexes, luxury condominiums, skyscrapers. I mean, yeah, they’re building good stuff like an airport, expanding the university and schools, but wherever they build they drive people out. It becomes too expensive for us to live there. If they have their way, I’ll have to move out. My rent’s already gone up three times. Like, its not for people, its just to make money.”

“Its gentrification,” said Sombra flatly.

“Its more than that, its like an attack. It affects everyone. We’re being driven out. Where are we supposed to go?” Sombra shrugged and shook her head with a frown. “And you can really tell who those new buildings are for. They use this fucking 'defensive architecture.' The benches deploy actual spikes at night and the bathrooms lock so homeless people can't sleep in them. Now they have those crazy LRAD towers. I mean, you heard them. They're boxing us in with this shit. They're making it a concentration camp”

Sombra raised her eyebrows and sucked her teeth, her expression was ambiguous. She looked more tired, a little more her age.

“Don’t like the taste of your own medicine?”

“What?”

“Let me ask you a question, _cabron_. Who do you think was here before this nice restaurant came in, why do you think they left? Then, what do you think happened to the property values to the buildings around it when it opened up? I mean, this place is pretty nice. Its got all this nice wood, the lighting’s good, we got a view of the street...”

“Its different, this is like a foreign invasion, it effects everyone who lives here. So many businesses have had to close down, like I said, this place isn’t gonna be here in a year”

“So, its suddenly a problem when it affects businesses?”

Lucio shook his head. She was being difficult.

“It doesn’t change the problem, we need Vishkar to build schools and affordable housing like they promised. Everything they’ve done is for the ultra rich or to control us. All they’ve finished building are a new high tech police station and some corporate high-rises. They are corrupt as hell-”

“Yeah, I know its bad, Lucio,” she said interrupting him, “but how is it different than what was going on before? Vishkar just makes it obvious because its happening faster”

Lucio was silent, he resented this conversation was making a stink since it was something he actually cared about. Now _he_ was feeling a little moody.

“Sorry, I’m a bitch and I hate politics,” she admitted, “I’m also a little tipsy so don’t mind me”

Lucio tried to play it cool. “Its fine, its just this means a lot to me, I have friends I’ve known since childhood who’ve had to move away. I’ve watched them bulldoze entire blocks I used to hangout on as a kid get rebuilt into luxury shopping centers in an instant–”

Sombra put her hand down suddenly causing the silverware to rattle. “ _Look_ , you already said it was bad,” she snapped. Lucio glared at her in surprise and she gave an exasperated sigh. “Sorry, temper,” she said in a subdued tone, “I care and I know its bad but I can’t hear this stuff unless I know someone is doing something otherwise it just makes me sick”

“People are resisting,” he said simply.

“That’s good I-”

“We’ve been staging protests,” he said cutting her off.

Sombra’s eyes suddenly lit up.

“We?” she asked.

Lucio smiled, he suddenly felt like he had Sombra back a little bit. Truthfully, he couldn’t wait to tell her he was an activist.

“Yeah, I’ve been organizing protests and occupations to stop Vishkar. I mean, someone’s gotta do something”

“You?”

Lucio nodded.

“Wow,” she said trying to hide her envy as she put her sunglasses back on, “you’re a real live activist”

Lucio scratched the back of his neck bashfully. “Yeah, I guess so”

“Anyways,” said Sombra in a biting tone, “what I was going to say was, I feel sick all the time because of stuff like this, its happening everywhere all the time. I almost can’t stand it because it makes me feel so disempowered. Its like typical or whatever to say but it gives me hope for the world when I hear about people actually do something.” Just then Sombra realized that Lucio was beaming at her like a puppy dog. “What? Want me to suck your dick or something?”

“No, you’re just funny,” he said, “I’ve never met anyone like you”

Sombra humphed and ignored him.

"So, you must be a shitty activist then"

"Aw, why's that?"

"You're still alive..." she replied, “so, what do you do Mr. Activist?”

“Welp, I organize on social media but I’m a DJ and I make music so I try to bring that to the cause if I can”

“Hmm,” said Sombra skeptically, “what does that do?”

“It gets people out, they’ll go to the protest if they know I’m there. You know, I bring the crowd and play the music I think people need to hear to pump them up or calm them down, depending”

“Calm them down? Like when it gets violent?”

“The cops always start it,” he asserted, “the Rejuvenescência movement is non-violent”

“Heh,” she smirked, “so, is the music to calm down the cops or the people?” Lucio was silent. “OK, so I actually know Vishkar,” she admitted, “Portero tried to get them to redevelop a slum in Mexico City. But Vishkar didn’t know anything about Mexico or else they would've known that you need permission from the cartels first if you want to do anything”

“What happened?”

She shrugged. "Los Muertos organized the neighborhood and made it a fight every time the police tried to evict anyone. When the evictions didn't stop they blew up the lead architect's office. After that Vishkar wanted out"

“Holy hell that is messed up”

“Yep, but Vishkar will never do business in Mexico again. It was such a scandal, for a while it looked like Portero might resign”

“So they just blew him up, huh? I don’t know how I feel about that”

“They didn’t just ‘blow _her_ up,’ they organized and resisted. I mean, I’m not all about violence, its just the way Mexico is”

Lucio cleared his throat. He didn’t quite know what to say. “That's intense”

“Yep!” said Sombra putting her hands behind her head, “that’s what happens when you mess with us.” She looked to the side and happened to notice she needed to shave. She quickly lowered her arms and awkwardly scratched her shoulder. “You have no idea what its like in Mexico, the cartels control everything, the prisons are run by the inmates, violence is everywhere. It actually makes me a little proud...”

“Why’s that?”

“Because it makes me a badass, _cabron._ It's the third world in Mexico if you're an orphan. If you can survive there you can survive anywhere.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Developments at Vishkar. Sombra and Lucio have a spat.

_Vishkar’s Ravana system is designed for total omniscience. By using a cutting edge human-assisted machine learning algorithm that correlates reports of personnel on the ground with surveillance data and open source data from social media, the Ravana system’s “Cognitive Engine” can reliably predict potential threats so that appropriate countermeasures can be taken. The system is so advanced that it has been known to pinpoint individuals who are about to commit crimes even before the perpetrators themselves know…_

_\- Marketing Pamphlet for Ravana Surveillance System_

 

* * *

 

_Vishkar Rio Headquarters_

"Directrice, I must protest, I was not informed of this woman's transfer," Satya spoke to the hologram image on her desk.

"Ms. Premji is a company officer, please pay respect to your colleagues and recognize her station," the robed woman replied.

"Understood," said Satya nodding her head.

"You and Sanjay must provide her with whatever resources she requires. Although, to be honest, I am again frustrated by this turn of events, her transfer comes from the board. The report from business intelligence made them concerned about the public perception of the project"

"I see"

The directrice cleared her throat.

"If that is all, Satya. There is business I must attend to"

There was much she wished to say about the potential for this to disrupt her project but she chose to remain silent. There was no way the directrice would understand. Satya nodded and the hologram on Satya's desk disappeared. The lights in the room automatically brightened and Satya blinked in irritation as her eyes adjusted.

There was a knock.

"Come in"

A woman in western business clothes stepped in. Satya briefly glimpsed movers hauling equipment and furniture into one of the other executive offices before the door closed behind her. Satya stood in her saree and regarded the woman from toe to head. She did the same.

"So sorry for the interruption, Satya, I figured I would drop by and introduce myself"

Immediately shed noticed the woman's English was American. Satya made her way towards her with deliberate steps. As she approached, the woman extended her hand to shake. Satya bowed her head and pressed her palms together, "Namaste"

The woman, retracted her hand and did the same.

"I'm Bharghavi Premji, the new director of public relations. If you have time I would love to talk to you straight away, I already talked to your little brother-"

"My what?" Satya blurted impatiently, she didn't have a little brother.

"Your assistant, Sanjay. And he's on board with all the changes I'd like to make"

Satya's mind reeled. Changes were not at all in the cards for her. It was already so difficult for her to work in this foreign country. She suppressed a grimace.

"Please, have a seat. I'm interested to hear"

Satya gestured and a chair materialized in front of her imposing contemporary desk. Satya gestured towards it. Bhargavi blinked and took her seat.

"I'm still marveled by you architects, hard-light has been explained to me so many times by our engineers but its still magical to me"

"Indeed," replied Satya coolly.

Bharghavi took a breath. "Please excuse me as well, I'm sometimes intimidated by architects. You have different minds"

Satya gave a forced smile.

"There is no need. We all have our role, directrice. You should be sitting where I am"

"Ah, its just a title... besides, I heard this office, this whole building was you're design. You deserve it... Anyways, there is a press conference coming up but I'm pushing it forward to tomorrow. I think this is a wonderful opportunity. We feel that the people of Rio would relate to you more if they got to know you"

Satya frowned.

"We?"

"The team from Imagem Corporativa and I. I know what you're thinking but I assure you projects without good PR fall through the cracks. Its not a threat, we simply must adapt to make the locals feel comfortable with our presence. We don't want a repeat of Mexico. I'd like you to attend. We've already prepared your address, we were inspired by your story. It's like we're creating a social movement here, rejuvenating the city. Any number of poor girls living in Rio's slums could become you. At least, that's our message"

"I'll consider it"

"Please do, the directrice said you'd be more than willing. I've given Sanjay the details"

There was another knock on Satya's door. Sanjay let himself in.

"Oh! Pardon me"

"No, I was just leaving," Bhargavi replied.

Sanjay nodded as she stepped past and turned to Satya.

"She has some interesting ideas," he said when she was clear, "our branding could use more local flavor"

"I find her... distasteful"

"Well, she was very successful when they wanted to redevelop the burrows around Manhattan. The project went off without a hitch." He turned his wrist and displayed a hologram of her proposal paper in front of Satya. "This one is interesting, she wants you to wear makeup and consider curling your hair to look more local," he said with a grin. "I like this one: the PR firm she hired noticed you're 'quite beautiful,' they want to get photos of you for a few magazine articles. Maybe on the beach in a Brazilian swim suit for NOVA"

"How utterly absurd," she scoffed.

"You don't have to do any of this," Sanjay assured, "however, the press conference is essentially mandatory"

Satya shook her head and turned to face the window.

"It was out of form for her to push the conference to tomorrow. This is a major imposition. We have our schedule and I will not fall behind. We need the slums developed." She paused and let out an exasperated sigh. "Besides, there are more important things to discuss. What happened last night?"

Sanjay retracted the hologram and took on a grim expression.

"Lucio wasn't there. Though, its not likely he knew we were coming for him. He may have simply left early"

"Ravana's algorithm is too optimistic," noted Satya.

"It wasn't Ravana, it was an informant, the source is reliable"

"Not so it seems"

Sanjay sighed.

"I don't see the board's reasoning behind this public relations overhaul if we are going to harass a bunch of kids. I would also remind you that the Rio police department is stretched thin. Requesting snap operations like that is a major imposition." Sanjay looked past Satya out her office's massive plate glass window. By chance, he made eye contact with her reflection in the mirror. Satya blinked in irritation and turned back towards him. "I'm assuming our new friend doesn't know about your plans," Sanjay stated after collecting himself.

"I'd like to keep it that way, if we are successful, Ms. Premji will be made redundant."

 

* * *

 

Sombra had been chilling in Lucio's room for a few hours since they got back, insisting that she needed to be alone. He'd gathered that she was doing something with her computer but it seemed to be quite secretive. It didn't confront Lucio much, he'd taken the time to upload his garbled footage of the march, write a few pointed tweets about Vishkar and consort with Otavio. When Otavio had finally expended all his nervous energy, he began to inquire about the girl staying with him with great interest.

"I don't know, she's weird," he said into his phone in a low tone, "She says she's gay but she seems into me."

"You don't know if she's into you and you slept with her?" Otavio replied, he was incredulous.

"Yes, well, no. Kind of? I slept with her friend... but she slept with her too, it was kind of at the same time."

"What the hell is wrong with you? Do you have any idea about Los Muertos girls? To be in the gang you have to fuck the leader, then you have to fuck everyone else in the gang, _and_  you have to kill someone."

"That's a rumor. Besides, she's not with Los Muertos. Well, she kind of is. I don't know, she doesn't have the—"

"The facial tattoos?"

"Yeah, no"

Otavio was silent.

"So, you don't know?" he said finally.

"Yeah"

There was another long pause.

"And she's gay? You're fucking crazy man" 

Lucio scoffed.

“Hey, _cabron_ ,” called Sombra emerging from Lucio's room with her laptop, “wanna see something cool?”

"I'll catch you later." He hung up his phone. “Naw, I got to show you something first.”

He gestured Sombra over to his couch and grabbed his laptop. She sat next to him and leaned on his shoulder to look at his screen. Feeling her bare skin on his arm sent an unusual pulse down the base of his spine. Sombra was odd to him, he always felt like she was either standoffish or unwittingly intimate with no in between. He collected himself.

“Check it out, Lolita friended me,” he said with an amused smirk.

“Are those photos from last night?”

“Yeah,” he said scrolling through pictures of her and her Los Muertos friends. He stopped on one in particular. “But this one.” She’d posted a picture of herself looking slightly disheveled after she’d thrown up in Lucio’s bathroom tagging it #post lucio #celebrity bathrooms #electro chola lyf #los muertos.

“Oh my God,” laughed Sombra, “are you OK with that?”

“Eh,” he shrugged, “I'm cool. I still can’t believe all these Los Muertos came from Mexico to see me.”

“I’m surprised no one got stabbed”

Lucio scrolled through until the end then closed the lid. “So, what’s your thing?”

"OK, you have to promise not to tell Lolita," she said girlishly. He nodded. He probably wasn't going to see her again anyways. She pulled her laptop up and opened the screen. "Remember the other night how Lolita asked Hotbot if she could sleep with me? That was probably right before I blacked out”

“Kind of...”

“I can control omnics," she said. It was as if she were a 7 year old girl confessing to her best friend she was a witch. "I did it to Hotbot last night with this code. It's how I got him to agree. I totally forgot I used it on him until now but I can do it, Lucio"

He could see electricity in her eyes, she was amused with her own power.

“No way,” said Lucio, “that’s impossible...”

“Look, its all here,” she said showing him her laptop screen. “He was using the show house’s wi-fi. This is where I hack the router and get it to automatically run a rowhammer attack in his browser. Here’s where I get his decrypted firmware and map his neural network. This is where I find which non-input nodes in the network are activated by the semantic cluster around the terms ‘Sombra, sex, with, Lolita.’ Here’s where I correlate a state representation of her asking him to have sex with me from those nodes. This is the function where I change the activations of the node cluster and the connection weights so the network's transition policy for giving permission to Lolita to have sex with me returns immediate reward...”

She was moving way too fast. To Lucio it just looked like a bunch of brackets and math but it gave Lucio the fear.

“What the-? How could you do this?”

“To be honest, a lot of for-loops.”

“No, I mean to a person!”

Sombra frowned and her excitement was immediately dampened.

"What? I didn’t hurt him or anything. I’m friends with Hotbot, I’d never do that. I didn’t even have to change it too much from what it was," she said defensively. "He probably would have said yes anyways, they have a poly-amorous relationship and Hotbot hooks up with other chicks all the time. Besides, what are you complaining about? You got to have some fun."

Lucio shook his head. All her justifications were compelling and he felt somewhat distracted by the sensation of his arm touching hers. Maybe he was overreacting. He was about to let it go when his conviction struck him, it all felt too seductive.

He shook his head.

"But its wrong, it's like mind control or brainwashing, I dunno...” he looked at her with concern. “Sombra, don't you see how it's wrong?"

“He doesn't know the difference, he's just a machine.”

“Would you do the same thing to a person? Omnics are people, not just machines, Sombra.”

“Whatever,” she said closing her laptop in frustration, “I figured you’d be happy for me but you’re too stuck up to see how cool it is.”

“Its  _really_ evil, Sombra. Why would I think something like that's cool?”

“Jesus Christ, what is it? I’m not a bad person, Lucio. You don’t know me at all and you already don’t trust me.”

“Its not you or what you might do with it. Some stuff just shouldn’t be made. Like what if the military got a hold of it or Talon or a company like Vishkar?”

Sombra suddenly stood with her laptop. “You’d have to be an idiot to think they aren’t already working on stuff like this and I’d kill myself before giving it to them. You think I’m joking?”

Lucio rubbed his head in frustration.

“Look, I don’t think you’re a bad person. Its just-”

“You don’t think anyone should have the power, yeah? Well, too bad. I have it. Not Talon or Vishkar or whoever. Why should they have the right and not me or you?”

“I mean, I agree but you can’t deny the temptation is there”

“Yeah, sure, its there. But now I can make a _real_ decision about it instead of fantasizing about what's right and wrong while other people go and do whatever they want.” Lucio furrowed his brow. She had a point but it didn’t at all justify what she did. She continued, “And since I thought of it first, I can find a way to stop it. Ever think of that? I did a fucking service.”

“Whoa, Sombra. Lets slow down, you’re a hero now?” he said holding his hands up. Sombra rolled her eyes. “Hey, I’m sorry, that was mean.” Lucio sighed and tried to reset his tone. “Look, you hacked Hotbot. You can’t just reprogram people without their consent. You gotta tell him what happened and set him back, at least.”

“Fine,” she said shaking her head, “I mean, I was gonna put him back anyways.”

She exhaled and sat back down on the couch with her laptop. She began to open her screen but stalled as she quickly contemplated something then completed the motion. Soon her face was awash in electronic light as she concentrated on her screen with a frown. As she worked, Lucio noticed she would periodically grimace and shake her head as if she was banishing a bad thought.

Lucio’s eyes wandered the room as he debated whether he should get out of her way for the sake of letting her cool down or stay and try to cheer her up. Maybe offer to give her a hug to reconcile? He decided against it and opened his laptop to find something to do with the assumption that they’d start talking again and she would reset.

After a few moments he heard Sombra sniff as her fingers clacked against the keys. He blinked and looked at her sidelong. She was intensely focused. He looked back at his computer and heard another sniff.

“Are we not friends now?” she asked. She sounded on the verge of panic.

“What? No, we just had an argument...”

“We aren’t?!”

It occurred to Lucio that the phrasing of her question made it impossible to reassure her.

“No, I mean, we _are_ friends but we like had a disagreement.”

Sombra quickly wiped her eyes with the back of her hand in frustration. He noticed her hand had a slight stutter as she pressed. “Its OK if we aren’t. No one likes me. I fucked it up with Lolita today, Hotbot is going to hate me when I tell him this, now I’ve fucked it up with you. You probably think I’m a narcissistic piece of shit.”

“Hey, Sombra, its OK. This stuff happens, I’m already over it. As long as you do the right thing, we’re cool.”

“Its _not_ OK. I _fucking suck_ at making friends. You guys are the first people I’ve interacted with in months and I’ve messed it up. I’ve been stuck in my room all fucking winter too anxious, sick and fucked up to go anywhere or feed myself. I don’t know what I’m doing, Lucio!”

Lucio frowned at first but then shook his head with a smirk. She was tripping. He would try to cheer her up.

“What?” she asked, “what is it?”

“I dunno, you’re complicated but I like you,” he said getting up and walking to the center of the living room.

Sombra’s paranoid eyes tracked him.

“What's that supposed to mean?”

“I like good people and you’re here, you’re chilling with me”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m telling you there’s no pressure,” he said pulling down a set of collapsible stairs from his ceiling, “and that we should chill on my roof.” Her eyes shifted suspiciously. “Oh my God, I’m your friend, Sombra! I like you and I want to keep talking to you!” he laughed.

* * *

Sombra and Lucio sat quietly on his apartment’s roof looking out over Rio de Janiero. It was a warm night. The city glowed below them with nighttime bustle. The sounds emanating up into the rooftop gave Sombra a vague feeling that there was somehow potential in this place. It was giving Sombra a weird energy. Energy she was laying low.

“We’re not supposed to be out here. Landlord’s rules. But I come out here to reset and gain a little perspective,” he said, his voice was almost serene, “you can zone out and watch the street or just look at the city”

Sombra leaned against the parapet as she took a drag of her cigarette.

“Its beautiful, even at night there’s so much color here”

“Yeah, on that side,” he said pointing towards a dense mishmash of low buildings, “that’s near Ipanema beach, its the Rocinha _favela._ Its almost tragic but you have to admit they have style.” He shifted and gazed in the other direction, “look, its like the opposite of the Vishkar section, corporate and lifeless”

She regarded the homogeneous steel and glass that comprised the Vishkar skyscrapers and sighed. “I hate it, I can’t understand why rich people feel the need to remake everything in their image. Look at those buildings, its like they're crushing the city”

“They literally are. Last summer there were rolling blackouts from the heat, everyone was using their AC, I guess. Wouldn’t you know it, the energy company powered Vishkar’s empty skyscrapers and cut power to the _favelas_? They said it was because of transmission problems”

“I can’t hear that shit, Lucio,” she said ashing her cigarette.

Sombra stepped away from the parapet and mounted a large air conditioning unit. Lucio watched her limber body climb then hopped up to join her. They sat cross-legged with their knees touching as they looked out over the city.

“You, OK?” he asked.

“Yeah...” she said with a half smile. "Man, Lucio, how can you afford a place like this?"

The distant sound of hovercoils from a Vishkar surveillance craft became audible in the silence as Lucio thought of what to say. Conversation with Sombra was like traipsing through a minefield.

"My music and some help from my parents."

"Huh, must be nice to have parents," she said bitterly, "must be nice to have fucking money."

Lucio sat silently not wanting to broach the topic further. He felt a little defensive, his money was clearly a sore spot, "It's not much, I make rent doing shows and selling my cds. Its hard work." Sombra didn’t respond so he kept talking. “My parents both travel a lot for their work so I didn’t really get to see them as a kid. I’m not sure I even know them...”

"It's not a big deal," she said, "really, I don't care. Its my parents and I have this–" She exhaled. "–mood thing. Don't mind me"

Lucio had gathered as much.

"I'm sorry"

"Don’t be, it happened a long time ago. Just forget I said anything"

"Um, what's the mood thing? If it's cool, me asking"

She exhaled again and chuckled darkly.

"They don't know. It's complicated. I mean, you saw. I take something for it but I don't think it does anything"

"What happens if you stop taking it?" he asked.

Sombra gave an exasperated sigh.

"Where do I begin? I can't sleep, I get irritated easily, it feels like I have too many thoughts and I can't think them all through, it's like I'm thinking everything at once and I get overwhelmed. I just want to kill myself. It's bad." She sat silently for a moment. "Sometimes I feel like a genius. Other times I just think about how I'm the worst person. All this energy goes into thinking of everything I've ever done wrong. Its like my brain wants to kill me. It sucks." Sombra folded her knees up. "Maybe it does something after all..."

The smell of Sombra’s cigarette smoke wafted into Lucio’s nose. It was distinct. He could almost feel his brain building connections around it: the night, the warmth, Sombra's violet eyes, her moodiness.

"Oh yeah, and sex," she laughed, "I need to have it all the time from anyone, men, women, omnics. I'm real nympho, like a bad stereotype of Latina women. Its a problem." Lucio humphed with amusement. She turned her head and looked at him expectantly with her blue eyes, she knew exactly what was going through his head. "Don't get excited,  _cabron._ I like girls."

Lucio held his hands up. "I gotchu."

"You don't expect it, though, I’m pretty awkward and nerdy, right?”

“Naw, nerdy, but not awkward”

“I am, I just cover it over by being bitchy”

Lucio laughed. “It works, I feel like I want to impress you,” he admitted.

Sombra gave him a cheeky smile. “Yeah, with all your money and nice things.” Lucio went silent again. “Come here,” she said fondly as she wrapped her arm around his back, “I just give you a hard time because I’m always broke.”

“I’m sorry, I know that’s hard.”

“You don’t know,” she snapped. Lucio recoiled from her sudden change. “Look, you might not be insanely rich or whatever but you can do whatever you want. How easy it is for you to get what you want changes the way you view the world.” Lucio frowned, he honestly felt guilty. “But yeah, I give you a hard time but I also give you a pass.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because you’re darker than me, _cabron_ ,” she sneered, “that’s how I know you’re not just going to change your mind about your activism thing”

“Oh my God, Sombra,” Lucio chuckled.

“What? I’m serious!” she said as Lucio shook his head with an amused smile, “Its how I know you’re not completely full of shit!”

Lucio put his arm around Sombra and they looked at the moon in silence for a moment as she smoked.

“Careful _,_ ” she said resting her head on his shoulder, “I get off on being withholding, now that I know you're gay for me I’m gonna give you a rough time...”

As they sat, the distorted sound of the surveillance craft’s hovercoils became more present. It had changed position and was now on a trajectory to pass over his apartment. Lucio remembered his ominous text from earlier that day.

“Hey, Sombra,” he said as his eyes narrowed on the craft, “lets have a drink inside”

“Hmm?” she replied, detecting something was wrong, “what is it?”

“That Vishkar hovercraft is going to pass over us. I don’t want them to see anything”

Sombra stood and glared at the ship for a moment as she smoked down the rest of her cigarette.

“Yeah, lets go...” she said.

She tossed it and they stepped below.


	8. Chapter 8

"Man, how do you have all this energy?" asked Lucio as Sombra drew thick lines on his face with her eyeliner.

Lucio sat on the toilet lid in his wife-beater as Sombra kneeled infront of him. Her makeup littered the small counter space around his sink.

"I'm weird, the longer I stay up the more energy I get," she replied after finishing a wing, "plus, you didn't say you had tequila in your cabinet." Sombra stared at his face closely to make sure everything was even on both sides, her face was only inches from his. "Oh man, I can't believe you're letting me do this..."

He would have thought it was weird but he didn't mind the body contact and the attention.

"I'm kicking myself for not bringing a dress. You're about my size, yeah?" He shrugged. "Stay still," she commanded with a smirk. She finished balancing out Lucio's wings then took a pull of tequila. "I think I'm done, wanna see?"

"Yeah."

He stood and looked at into mirror then held his face in embarrassment. "Oh God," he groaned into his hands.

"Heyy! You'll fuck up my work,  _pendejo_!"

Lucio looked at the mirror again and posed his face, turning left and right. "OK, I'm more used to it."

Sombra cackled maniacally and took another pull of tequila. "I'm a genius."

"Really went overboard on the purple eye shadow..." said Lucio holding his chin and inspecting his face.

"I gotta do my face like this some day." Sombra took yet another pull and wiped her mouth. She noticed Lucio's butt as he regarded himself and stared at it wolfishly. "Dang, Lucio, you're a hot chick."

"Naw way."

"Yeah way," she retorted.

Sombra sauntered behind Lucio and grabbed his hips. Suddenly, she humped his butt forcefully and he was knocked slightly forward. He turned to her with an indignant look.

"What are you _doing_ , girl?! I almost hit my face!"

"Aw, _pobricito_ , what're you gonna do about it?" she said grabbing a clump of Lucio's dreads. She yanked them towards her to bring Lucio's face closer to hers. "You _really_ look like a girl to me right now,  _cabron._ I can't help myself."

He locked eyes with her. They'd gone slightly bleary.

"When did you get so drunk?" Lucio asked nervously.

Sombra grinned lasciviously. She was pulling on his hair a little hard.

" _Callate._ "

She locked lips with him in a tonguey kiss. Lucio pulled back in surprise but Sombra followed him in. Sombra's tongue was so long it was almost phallic. He grabbed her shoulders and kissed her back to try to get in the moment and assert a little dominance. They stumbled around the bathroom in a strange tango as each tried to assert control. Suddenly, Lucio's heel hit the tequila bottle, knocking it over.

"Mmm!" Sombra exclaimed. She pulled away and collected it off the floor, holding it in front of him with both hands. "This is precious."

Lucio smirked.

"Lets take this to my room..."

* * * 

Lucio and Sombra lay in bed cuddling. Their makeout session had moved from the bathroom, to the hallway, to his bedroom before finally calming down when she became more attenuated to their anatomical differences.

“I don’t get it, Lucio,” said Sombra has he held her from behind. He gently kissed the back of her neck. “I like you as a friend but a friend I want to make out with. I don’t know if I want to fuck you.”

Lucio blinked.

“Why’s that?”

“I get so mean with the people I have sex with,” she admitted jokingly, “but that’s just boys. You're like a girl to me.”

“Maybe you could have sex with me like a girl?” Lucio joked.

She suddenly turned over to face him. “No way!” she said in excited disbelief, “I could like... fuck your ass?”

“Heh, I'll think about it.”

“I knew it...” she said grumpily turning back over.

“Why don’t we try having sex and we can see how it goes?”

“I told you, I like girls, _cabron._ ”

Lucio’s mind was reeling, Sombra was so contradictory.

They lay there comfortably for a moment as Sombra lay staring at the underside of her wrists. He wondered what she could be thinking about. Lucio regarded the curves of Sombra's body, catching the details of her little moles and scars.

He started to slowly kiss the back of her neck, letting her invisible hairs lightly brush against his lips. Sombra winced and wiggled happily from the delicate sensation. Soon she stopped her cute movements, instead sighing and squirming seductively after each kiss as he moved to kiss her behind her jaw and nibble her ear. She snuggled into him and turned her head over her shoulder to kiss him back. Lucio wrapped his arms around her and held her flat tummy as she pressed her butt against his pelvis. Slowly, her breathing was becoming more aroused.

Lucio weighed what he should do. He was sure this wasn’t going to go anywhere but Sombra seemed to be more receptive, more than she was their first night. He played with her belt as they kissed, slowly he unbuckled it and pushed her cutoff shorts lower and lower down her waist until she shimmied them off.

He motioned to take off her shirt. She tucked her neck in to help him ease it off then sought his lips to continue kissing. Soon he was running his fingers along the inside of her bra, too large for her breasts. He rolled her nipple between his fingers. Sombra sighed and arced her back as he tweaked her, soon she was helping him undo her bra. Now she lay topless in his bed in her little underwear watching him intently as he took off his shirt. When he was done she drew him close to kiss him more passionately as he undid his pants and underwear.

“Lucioooo,” she said in a singsong voice, “what are you dooiinng?”

“I’m... seducing you?”

Sombra snorted.

“Were you just gonna stick it in without asking?” she said resting her head on her knuckles.

She was smiling at him fondly. He couldn’t tell if she was fucking with him.

“No. What? No way. That’s horrible”

“Uh huh. OK, bro,” she said with a smile. Sombra seemed remarkably well humored considering the question. She reached under her underwear as she looked up with an inquisitive expression on her face then pulled out her hand and regarded it. “I’m pretty wet... you got a condom?”

 _Shit,_ he thought. He’d had all kinds of opportunities to get condoms the last few days and it never even occurred to him.

“Um, I can pull out?”

“That’s _hilarious_ , bro,” she said with a smirk, “I’d let you do it but I know you have a crush on me.”

She pulled off her underwear. _What the fuck?_ Lucio thought, _what is she doing?_ Before he knew it her arms were around his neck and she was drawing him close to kiss him. He felt the length of his penis rubbing against her inner thigh as she brought him on top of her.

“I’ve got an idea,” she said seductively, albeit with a discernible hint of meanness, “lets just chill.” They kissed and Lucio shifted position. Again he felt the tip of his penis rub against her, this time on her pubic hair. He was so close. “You know, like you said: no pressure”

Lucio cleared his throat.

“Like this?” he asked.

“Yeah, like this...”

 

* * *

 

“Check it out, this is Symmetra,” said Lucio with his laptop resting on his belly. His other arm was wrapped around Sombra’s back as she nakedly ate a bag of chips. "This went live on Vishkar's Rio site at midnight" 

They'd fooled around for a while but every time Lucio tried to take it further, Sombra would laugh and give him some variation of 'no'. It was torture. He'd been left with a horrific spell of blue balls so bad that his stomach ached.

He turned the laptop towards her and Sombra’s eyes went wide. “Whoa, she is _smoking_ ,” she mused as she looked at her picture. It was Satya making a rare public appearance at a corporate gala looking profoundly rigid and uncomfortable. Her discomfort, however, did not undermine that she looked devastatingly beautiful in her high heels and dress. “I’d totally fuck her”

“Yeah, well, she’s the lead architect of the Rio Utopia project”

“These are her? Really? They take pictures like that of Vishkar architects?” asked Sombra hungrily looking over the picture, “Aieya! Look at her legs, _cabron_!”

“Look at her eyes. You can see she’s not all there. She’s a psychopath. She’s the reason the city's in lock down”

Sombra leaned in and investigated the dark beauty’s green eyes. She didn’t detect any antipathy or hatred. They seemed to want to look past the people, beyond, as if to try and intuit a more transcendent world. The people were a stain.

“Its not the eyes, its the lips, _cabron._ She’s disgusted. She doesn’t want to be there”

“How do you know?”

“I’m a girl”

“So, now you’re a girl?” Lucio asked sardonically.

“Whatever _,_ ” she said shaking him off. Lucio found another candid picture of her. She looked moody, discontented with the state of things. “I like her. She’s a bad bitch who put her heel down on your city. You’re just mad ‘cause you got in her way”

“Now you’re just trying to get my goat,” he said giving her the stink eye. He poked through his browser looking for more info. “Check it out, she’s the youngest hard light architect to graduate from Vishkar’s academy. She’s only 22”

“Fuck her, I hate her,” snapped Sombra.

“Jealous?”

“Yeah...” she admitted as she blinked in irritation.

She lay back on the pillow. Lucio shifted his arm from under her to keep his computer stable.

“Here’s an article about her in O Globo. Says she was plucked from ‘extreme poverty’ when she was young because she showed natural ability with hard light”

“Fuck, no one came to pluck me out of extreme poverty when they found out I was good with computers.” Sombra scowled. “All they did was put me in advanced classes with a bunch of rich kids and nerds. I fucking hated it, everyone hated me and I don’t even know why”

Lucio could tell she was starting down a bad head trip.

“Sombra, I’m sorry”

“You don’t get it. You know I programmed a microprocessor when I was 8? I could do calculus when other kids were learning how to make change. Where was my shot?” she said in frustration. “You wouldn’t believe what I’ve had to do to survive. Its fucking degrading. Now I’m almost 25 and no one gives a _shit_ about what I learned when I was a kid. I mean, what the fuck have I done with it, right?” Lucio was quiet. “ _Right_?”

“Hey, Sombra, its OK. You’ll get yours. You’re smart, things’ll work out for you”

“Ugh,” she groaned.

They sat in tense silence when she abruptly turned on her front and put her head under the pillow. She stayed there for a moment before taking a deep breath and letting out a frustrated groan.

“Don’t mind mee! I’m overreacting!” she said from under the pillow, “I’m just fuckin’ cray!”

Lucio peeked under the pillow.

“Hey”

“Hey,” she replied flatly. Slowly, she came out from under the pillow and sat up putting her hands under armpits to cover her chest. “Sorry,” she said shaking her head, “I’m over it”

Lucio put his hand on her shoulder.

“You're gonna do great things,” he said reassuring her, “I promise you”

“Yeah, I hope so.” Her reply was halfhearted. She looked off at the wall and sighed. “We can keep reading up on your girlfriend if you want”

“Nah, I’m done with her”

At that moment his cellphone buzzed obnoxiously.

"Um, let me take this..." Sombra leaned back and let him reach over the her to grab his phone from his pants. It was Otavio. 

He answered.

"Yo"

"You're awake? Its 5 am!"

"Yeah?"

"Did you see Vishkar's new site? They moved the press conference to tomorrow! You need to be asleep!"

"What the-? Are you serious, Otavio? I wouldn't have answered if I was asleep!"

"I'll send you the time, be ready"

The call ended. Lucio disdainfully tossed the phone at his pants and turned to Sombra.

“Looks like you'll get to meet her tomorrow,” he said forebodingly.


	9. Chapter 9

“Sanjay,” asked Symmetra, “why did I have to come to this? I have work to do”

“Ms. Premji wants you to gain experience with public relations. My advice is to take the opportunity. You're being eyed by the directrice for an executive position”

“I am perfectly happy as an architect, it is not my desire to try and cultivate talents for which I show no interest or aptitude”

“Of course, but it is not wise to go against the directrice’s wishes. She is impressed with you and has very high expectations”

“She will be disappointed if I dabble in things that are beyond my expertise. That is why I have you to handle such work”

Sanjay thought to himself as he eyed the crowd then leaned in so his counterpart to his left wouldn’t hear. “You and I will only be able to hide your difficulties for so long, Satya. I'm surprised they haven’t noticed already,” he whispered, “But I will tell you, you're on track to surpass the directrice herself. I want you to have her job.” He leaned back and spoke openly again. “You deserve it for all your work. But you need to be able to handle the increased responsibility. You _must_ work on this”

Satya was silent as she managed the effect of the hubbub and the tension of the conversation on her nerves. She surreptitiously gripped the side of her dress and squeezed the fabric causing the material to bunch up. The sensation of the fabric tightening against her skin calmed her. Despite Symmetra’s stealthiness, Sanjay noticed her subtle movement and sighed. He was well aware of her habits.

“Your honesty is appreciated, Sanjay,” said Satya, stopping before he could comment, “I will learn what I must in order to more perfectly fulfill my role”

“Indeed, I think you will find the increased pay well worth the effort.” He leaned in again. “Besides, I am beginning to question her competence after the fiasco in Mexico. With you in charge there is no end to how far Vishkar can go”

Discerning what he was saying from his low tone over the noise of crowd was irritating her.

“Please do not whisper to me, Sanjay. We’ll discuss this after the conference”

“As you wish”

At that moment, a light skinned Brazilian man in a fitted suit and a face well suited for television stepped in front of the podium and cleared his throat.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, we are prepared to start the conference. Behind me are the lead architects and engineers of the Rio Utopia project. They’re working around the clock to achieve our collective dream of an efficient and, most importantly, _humane_ city built to uphold the promise of civil society. I will answer your questions but they are free to jump in and interject if I screw up.” This comment evoked some low laughter and chuckles from the crowd. “We’ll keep this informal and conversational. Sound good? Excellent. We’re all _very_ happy to be here and quite proud of what we’ve accomplished. So, lets begin. We’ll start with the press up front and move back. You there, Atlas news”

“Can you comment on the architectural philosophy that Vishkar is using for the Rio Utopia project?”

“This is a great question for our architects but I’ll give it a try, if they let me,” he said turning to look at Satya. She blinked at him in surprise and mild outrage. He turned back. “Yes, well, of course, hard light has changed everything. The ability to literally transform light into any material has made our imaginations the only limit. However, as a rule, we are against the decadence of the contemporary style that emerged at the turn of the century. They called it post-modern but to us it represents the failure of pre-Crisis society to adapt to people’s needs. You had weird buildings that looked like they were melting or with their internal workings on the outside. Vishkar only uses such forms if they prove to be the most efficient. We want our buildings and spaces to be ergonomic to promote the most efficient behavior in one's cultural, economic and political pursuits. The idea is to build cities suited for human life, if that makes sense.” He again turned back towards the architects. “How did I do?” A particularly nerdy looking fellow on Satya’s team gave him a thumbs up. “Ah, thumbs up is good, so I got it!”

The crowd chuckled. Satya thought this man was a fool.

“Its quite a complex topic that I’m sure we could discuss for hours so we’ll have to move on. You can catch us after the conference, the architects would love to talk. Next question?”

Satya grit her teeth at the idea of being forced to chat with a bunch of know-nothings about such abstract nonsense.

“Yes, you, O Globo”

“Can you comment on your plans to redevelop Rio’s slums?”

“Yes, of course, we’d like to thank you for broaching this _important_ topic since we’d more than love to talk philosophy and design all day. Rio’s slums pose significant challenges. Of course, hard light construction is instantaneous but planning and preparation has been difficult due to changing requirements. Our major constraint is that we must deconstruct the existing architecture before we build. We’d like to build all at once, as we did with the original Utopaea after the Omnic Crisis, but we cannot simply demolish an entire neighborhood in one go. We owe it to the people of Rio not to interfere with their lives. The logistics of relocating people and providing temporary housing have been daunting to say the least...”

Satya shifted uncomfortably. Relocating Rio’s citizens was the least popular and most expensive part of her project.

“Can you elaborate on the relocation process?”

The spokesman cleared his throat. Muffled sounds of commotion came from behind the conference hall doors. Satya blinked a few times and quickly shook her head. She was sure she heard the sound of someone repeatedly bashing two pans together.

“Of course, however, the team prefers to call it the transformation process. One aspect of our duties is social engineering. We must ensure that the residents fit comfortably into the social plan. Sometimes this means we cannot simply put them back where they were living before since it would not be suitable for their economic situation. It is important to us that we find a suitable place for them. Indeed, it is not always easy for locals to leave their homes so we sometimes face resistance. It is especially hard for a population we call ‘at risk.’ However, we would like to assure the people of Rio that what we are building will be better than what they had before-”

Suddenly, a female activist burst through the entrance followed by several security staff.

“They’re lying to you! Its a police state!” she shouted before being brutally tackled to the ground, “they’re building a concentration camp!”

Several camera flashes went off as disturbed murmurs erupted from the audience. The police hauled the woman out as she shrieked hysterically about Vishkar and Nazis.

“Stay in your seats, we’ll continue shortly,” said the spokesman as he nervously looked towards the entrance, “can we _please_ shut those doors?”

A member of the security staff walked across the stage making his way to Satya.

“We’ve already notified the police,” he quickly whispered and ducked out.

The sound of the commotion became clearer now that the doors had swung open. There was a gathering in the hall pushing against security staff to try and disrupt the conference. To the spokesman’s relief the conference security staff managed to close and lock the doors, muffling the sound of the commotion. The guards took positions at the entrance. Several attendees approached to kindly ask how they might leave.

“My apologies. We may continue as normal-”

He was interrupted as the doors burst open yet again, knocking the guards aside and flooding the room with electronic music. Lucio stormed in with an entourage agitators in tow holding a massive boombox bumping his latest album on his shoulder.

“What is up, my people?” he shouted cordially, "I know ya'll weren't trying to throw me off by rescheduling..." The guards recovered and began to surround him. “These events are open to the public, right?”

He lowered the volume on his boombox when he noticed a young blonde journalist staring at him agape. He winked at her. “Hey, how’s it hangin’? Have you heard my new album?”

“Lucio!”

“Right,” he said regaining his focus. He scanned the crowd. “Yeah, lookin’ pretty snazzy in here. Got the press, got a corporate yes-man lookin’ fly, got some Vishkar architects. Ya’ll look _good_.”

Satya immediately stood and walked off the stage. She couldn’t stand this any longer.

“Nuh uh,” called Lucio, pointing right at her, “I see you Symmetra, you stay where you are, gorgeous.”

She froze.

“This is for you so you _understand_ what you’re doing to us out here. You're killing us, girlfriend. Vishkar is forcing people out of their homes. They promised to compensate folks but, guess what? If you don’t own your home in the first place guess who gets compensated? The landlord! Lotta’ good that’s doing us. Meanwhile, they move you to some temporary housing outside of Rio. Might be nice. But just how are you supposed to work at your job when you are suddenly miles and miles away from where you work? Are they paying people for their lost wages when they move us to bumfuck nowhere? Hell no!”

Satya stomped to the podium pushing the spokesman out of the way.

“Your government didn’t see fit to aid us with the relocation process. Vishkar must make a profit, we cannot repay you for work you didn’t do”

“Well, I don’t remember anyone asking to be relocated. Seems pretty offensive when you’re also taking our money for the job”

“Your government decided, it is not our problem if you didn't  involve yourself in the political process”

“Satya, please,” said Sanjay putting his hand on her shoulder.

She shrugged him off. “If you are discontent with your government’s decisions, take it up with them”

“As a matter of fact, we’d like to take it up with them but you’ve built those classy suppression towers so every time we try to get together to voice our opinion you do this-”

He switched the track on his boombox to the sound of Vishkar’s LRAD towers. The room collectively winced as the horrific shrieking sound played. Satya’s hair stood on end. It felt like someone was trying to drive a truck through her nerve endings. She stared at the floor paralyzed, holding her head, as she waited for the sound to end.

“Except _WAY_ louder,” he continued. “Like that? So, you’re the one’s responsible but you don’t want to take responsibility. You’ve proven you don’t care about us or what we think. That’s why I’m here to tell the world whats happening here and to tell _you_ to _get out_. Rio doesn’t want you. And if you want to interfere with our lives, we’ll interfere with yours.”

Satya stood at the podium breathing heavily as she continued to hold her head. Sanjay again tried to pull her away but she turned and glared at him with furious eyes. He backed off and she turned back to the podium.

Satya’s eyes met Lucio’s and he felt an indescribable feeling of dread under her gaze. For a moment he almost felt puny, she was an immensely powerful woman, a genius architect who could bend light to shape reality. He got the sense he wasn’t a person to her, he was an obstacle.

“The more you resist the more you will suffer. This is the order of things,” she said darkly before storming off the stage.

“Satya, gah, no!” called Sanjay as he chased after her.

The PR guy simply held his head in disbelief as he tried to wrap his head around how the hell he would fix this debacle.

“There you have it ladies and gentlemen, Vishkar’s Utopian vision for Rio,” said Lucio with a cocky smile.

“Lucio, cops are coming in!”

“Whoops, gotta go! Hashtag Lucio, hashtag Rejuvenescência, hashtag La Libercion. I’m out, baby!” he shouted as he backed out of the room, “Oh yeah, hashtag Rio Resistance, hashtag-”

“Come on, Lucio!”


	10. Chapter 10

_Vishkar Corporate Pad_

Satya sat alone in the large living room of her personal quarters. She’d had enough of people and corporate politics.

Suddenly, she heard her door open. Only one other person had access to her personal quarters. Sanjay stormed in and flicked a switch opening the pad's large blinds, letting a copious amount of light into the spacious room. Satya sat unmoved and unfazed.

“Is this what you wanted?” exclaimed Sanjay, shoving a tablet in front of her face. “They called it ‘Vishkar: Stalinism without Utopaea’”

Satya lowered her head.

“Sanjay, this is completely unacceptable,” she said in a subdued tone, “I requested to be alone”

“Of course, I want to be alone too but instead I am running damage control on your outburst. We didn't even get the guy, this Lucio. They'd be able to jail him for the laws we'd proposed but the city is still voting on them. There was nothing serious they could hold him for. He's spotless, no criminal record”

“It wasn’t an outburst, I was completely in control”

“I was afraid of that,” he groaned grabbing his hair as he sat on a materializing chair, “We look like monsters. Bharghavi is inconsolable, she wants you fired”

“I simply do not understand. PR people have no appreciation for my job, their summary of my work was detestable”

“ _Detestable_? He made it _relatable_. And you should have let him handle that-that activist, whatever his name was, that arrogant buffoon has dug our graves,” Sanjay cursed. “Now everyone is questioning every aspect of this project. They're asking how it's possible that something which is built instantaneously can be behind schedule. Bharghavi was brought on precisely to avoid a situation like his.” Sanjay noticed Satya gripping her dress and calmed himself. “I’m sorry, Satya. I’m simply confused. I tell you that you are being eyed for a position as an executive and you go and do this”

“I must be firm, I will never be on the board. It's not something I want”

“So be it,” he said grimly, “you’ve proven as much. Lets discuss how to fix this debacle. The scum is right, we're disrupting people’s lives. We’ll have a revolt on our hands if this project is not finished soon”

“We must accelerate evictions in the slums so we can build homes. We cannot continue to build meaningless structures with no utility”

“That would be a nightmare. Besides, the government is pleased with our plazas and skyscrapers. Its the only thing we have going for us. They're the most visible successes of our project...”

Satya stood suddenly.

“They do nothing to shape the social fabric if they are empty,” she asserted. Satya stood and slowly began to pace, making half-completed dance motions. He knew that she danced when she was anxious. Her mastery of the movements represented thousands of hours of resistance against mental anguish. “We must weave the social fabric. The elegance of our vision is that everything is in its place. If only they could see what I see. The nightmare is a paradise,” she said dreamily as she projected a sphere of light in her prosthetic hand.

“The reality is constantly changing population models,” Sanjay fretted, “its evictions and patrols, at this point we are subsidizing the Rio police force. We’ll never find a way to rehouse all the people we evict”

She closed her hand around the sphere and it vanished.

“It must be done all at once. The longer we delay the realization of our vision the more muddled it gets. We need to finish clearing the slums”

“Agreed, I'll contact the deconstruction teams to begin planning at once. But what if there's resistance? What about this Lucio?”

“He fails to understand that this is _my reality._ His movement is pathetic. It's just his fans from his little music scene. They're not capable of real resistance,” she said taking an imperious tone. "He lives on the outskirts of Gavea where we have plans. We'll evict him tomorrow."

Sanjay let himself become hypnotized by her captivating movements for a moment before breaking free.

“Fine. But we have a job to do and a budget. It won’t be perfect. Something must give”

“No, Sanjay. When the skyscrapers and plazas are full of people, when everyone can move freely, live within their means, and work to their fullest potential, they will be happy. It will be perfect, Sanjay. The social fabric will be woven so everyone fulfills their purpose. I cannot tolerate any less. I'll see to it personally”

Sanjay sighed in frustration. Didn’t Satya understand the stress this would put her under? That her idea of optimally engineering people’s lives was an impossible game of whack-a-mole, especially with an unwilling population? Every contemporary economic model said that you needed to have some unemployment. Some social ills were a fact of life.

“I'll say this once more before I never mention it again. _People must want this._ The population in the slums have lost their enthusiasm for your project, they're no longer self-reporting. Our survey data is useless. We’ve completely resorted to surveillance and predictive modeling to fill in the gaps. Even our most optimistic models have an unacceptably wide margin of error”

“I did with Utopaea”

“The conditions were different. We had full support of the people and the government. An infinite budget. Utopaea is the exception not the rule”

“No”

“We are out of time, Satya. May 1st is coming up. The show that was put on for us today will be nothing compared to what the resistance is planning for the first. Time is against us. It is our most impending constraint.”

She stopped her hypnotic movements and looked towards Sanjay in disgust. He could almost see his statement course through her nerves and disperse itself in her pout.

“Time is an illusion,” she asserted.

Sanjay gave her an ambiguous look.

“Think what you may but reality resists,” he said simply.

He truly felt her vision of the world was beautiful. It was a harmonious, mathematized and rational world which expressed the highest moral aspirations. It was an act of violence to deny it. His look was at once of longing and frustration. That world was as inaccessible as she was.

“You're staring at me.”

“I’m sorry, I'll leave you in peace,” he said turning his eyes to the floor.

He turned to leave.

"People _will_ want this project, I will see to it," she said, "Oh, and Sanjay, take the day off tomorrow."

"But you said yourself, we're on a schedule-"

"I insist, I will deal with Bharghavi myself and take responsibility for my mistake"

"Of course"

He delayed a moment as he briefly pondered then stepped towards the switch that controlled the oversized blinds. Satya returned to her seat in the center of the room and lowered her head. He flicked the switch and left her to brood in the dark.

 

* * *

 

_Early next morning_

"Sombra! Sombra! What is it? What's going on?"

Lucio had awoken to the sound of balling coming from his kitchen. Sombra had crawled out of his bed sometime in the early morning. When he heard her he rushed in in a half-asleep daze to find Sombra under his sink curled in a ball dressed only in her underwear and a light shirt.

The day had been incredible. Lucio was held in a Rio police station for hours but they ultimately could only get him for disturbing the peace. He'd lawyer up and challenge that in court, no problem.

Sombra greeted him outside the station by running and jumping into his arms and kissing his face. They drank in a local bar as they watched the segment on him in the nightly news. He'd really done it. International attention was finally on Vishkar for what they were doing in Rio. His social media feed was blowing up. Sombra was seeming to like him too, she'd been on an upswing, seeming to glow.

“So, this is what you do?” she'd said swaying her shoulders back and forth, “you play shows and storm press conferences? I’m honestly impressed...”

They'd flirted all night in their way and collapsed in his bed from exhaustion. Now Lucio was kneeling in front of Sombra as she held her knees and sobbed under his sink.

"I'm fucking trash, Lucio."

"Why? What happened?"

"Its not about what happened! Everything's been great. You're so good, Lucio. I'm just pathetic. All I do is hurt people and hurt myself, I should just fucking die," she said morbidly.

"Nawnawnaw, that's bullshit, what's going on?" He looked around the kitchen. Several bottles of liquor lay out on the counter. He knelt back down to Sombra. "Are you drunk?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

She shrugged. "I dunno, I felt bad and I couldn't sleep. It helps me sleep," she said defensively. Sombra gripped her pink hair. "I don't know what I'm doing here, I'm freaking the fuck out, Lucio. I don't want to go back to Mexico. How am I supposed to live my whole life like this?"

"Sombra..."

"I'm a terrible person. I borrow money all the time, I'm so broke..."

"That doesn't make you a bad person"

"I've fucking done jobs for Los Muertos," she snapped rolling her head to the side, "I fucking had to or I'd starve. You don't know what I've done for them, what I've done to people. Some of them deserve it but a lot of them don't. Its turning into a war in Mexico, Lucio, ever since Portero was elected. Now they want me in the gang..."

Lucio exhaled. "What did you do for them?" 

"I get information and sell it to them, at first it was small like crooked cops but now its out of hand. I know things, Lucio, about powerful people. It makes me sick what they do but I've seen what Los Muertos does to them. I don't want to be involved, I just want to forget"

Lucio stared at the floor in thought. It was still dark but he could hear birds just starting to sing. He tried to clear the cobwebs from his mind to think of what to say.

"You can stop, Sombra. You're in control"

Her voice became heated with anger. "I'm  _not_ in control. You don't understand what its like, they took me in when I was young, they're like my family. They'll kill me if I leave." She hung her head. "And if I stop hacking, I don't know what I'd do to survive. I'd just become a fucking prostitute."

"You could get a normal job, Sombra. You could be a programmer"

"What do you know? Like I'm supposed to be a software engineer or a web developer?" she sneered, "Look at me, I'm _fucked up_ , Lucio. I can't hold down a job, I'm too crazy."

Lucio wracked his brains. He had no idea what to do with Sombra. Suddenly, something occurred to him.

"Did you take your... you know?"

"My  _what?_ " she snapped.

"Your shit, I don't know! Your meds!"

"No."

"Aw man, Sombra, you told me you get like this!"

"Yeah, but you've been getting me drunk, Lucio. It makes them work all weird"

"Sombra, I'm sorry, I fucked up but you gotta take them!"

"Fucking no, Lucio!" she cried. "They're just fucking sedatives. Are you saying it's not real?! That I should fucking calm down?!" Lucio was taken aback by the force of her shouting. He watched her eyes turn paranoid. She spoke with subdued panic. "They'd give that shit to me at the orphanage when I'd cry too much or get angry. I don't want to take it anymore. It's so expensive and I'm tired of feeling like shit. I _hate_ feeling dead all the time."

Lucio leaned back against the island across from the sink. "You gotta come out at least, it smells weird under there, its like cleaning product"

"No"

He hung his head for a moment and sighed. "Want me to leave you alone?"

"No." She looked off to the side and thought for a moment. Her paranoid eyes turned cool and she shimmied herself out from under the sink and sat next to Lucio. "I'm really crazy, Lucio"

"We've all got problems. Its totally cool, I just wish I could help"

Sombra's eyes shifted. "I'm telling you because I need help with something," she said taking her underwear off.

"Sombra, w-what are you doing?"

"Hold me," she said embracing him. Her movements were frantic, she held the back of his head and kissed him hard. Lucio was taken aback by her force but managed to wrap an arm around her. As she kissed she seemed to be shaking. Suddenly, she pulled away. "Put your fingers, here," she said grabbing his hand free hand and putting it over her pussy. "Just make little circular motions..."

Lucio swallowed and complied apprehensively. He felt for her clit.

"Little further down... yeah..."

He found it and began to gently rub like he told her. She continued to desperately make out with him but then suddenly twisted her head down and began taking heavy aroused breaths as he worked. He applied more pressure and she sank down and pushed her pelvis up against his fingers. After less than thirty seconds she pulled his hand away and frantically finished masturbating herself. Her body twisted in a jolt of pleasure from a sudden orgasm.

She panted a few times and sat up.

Lucio gazed at her in concern.

"Heh, I cum pretty easily off my meds..." she said running her fingers through her pink mohawk, "but now that I know you can do that, I might boss you around"

"Are you, OK?"

"Yeah, sometimes I just need a distraction, you know?" she replied as she stood up. She sniffed and scratched her inner leg. "I'm exhausted"

Lucio briefly watched her saunter towards his room. He looked at her underwear for a moment and thought to himself that Sombra really was crazy. He picked up the underwear and followed her into his room. Sombra lay splayed out on his bed with her hips pressed against the bed. As he got in he rubbed the palm of his hand up her back and under her shirt. She sighed and curled around him to cuddle his back as they slept.

Lucio slept lightly, only half conscious of Sombra's aroused breathing as she tried to periodically masturbate herself to sleep. 

He awoke to a knock on his door.


	11. Chapter 11

Due to the catastrophic damage sustained by the city of Rio de Janeiro during the Omnic Crisis and the extraordinary nature of its social and economic situation, Vishkar is sanctioned by the government of the City of Rio De Janeiro to relocate any citizens who meet the following criteria:

  1. Has a criminal record
  2. Is unemployed or is currently receiving government assistance
  3. Lives more than 10 miles from their place of employment and does not have adequate transportation
  4. Otherwise has a substandard socio-economic situation and is deemed able to benefit positively from relocation



Vishkar has been encouraged to intervene in as minimal and unobtrusive a manner as possible but has broad discretion to use these powers as it sees fit. Special care should be taken to ensure that citizens in wealthy neighborhoods are notified well in advance and are generally unimposed upon.

_\- Vishkar internal memo_

 

* * *

  

“Fuckin’, Lucio, someone’s at your door,” said Sombra.

She hadn't delayed and her voice wasn't at all groggy. Had she even slept? Lucio shifted and got up from the comfort of lying next to Sombra’s warm body then stumbled himself to his front door.

“How'd they get in?” he muttered to himself.

There was another impatient knock. He opened it.

It was an Indian man, no doubt a Vishkar employee. Immediately, Lucio's heart sank with dread. There was no way this could be good.

“You’re scheduled for eviction today. Here is your reassignment,” he said unceremoniously shoving a piece of paper in his hand, “pack your things, you have 20 minutes”

“20 minutes? Are you serious?" said Lucio gripping his hair, "You can’t do this to me! I’ve got all this stuff, I have nowhere to go! Where was my notice?”

“We've been contacting you for weeks. You’ve been given your reassignment to temporary housing. I suggest you make your arrangements quickly”

Lucio's eyes wandered to a bowl where he kept his mail sitting on the table near his front door. It was overflowing with unopened letters bearing a prominent "V."

“That’s bullshit. I-”

“Your landlord has been notified and has given us permission to evict. You must comply,” the Vishkar interrupted..

“Hold up, I have rights as a tenant!”

“Those rights no longer apply. You've had weeks to appeal”

“Unbelievable...”

Sombra stepped to Lucio’s side. “What’s going on?”

“I’m getting evicted, they’re giving me 20 minutes to get out,” he muttered.

“No way...”

Lucio heard commotion down the hall and poked his head out. It was the sound of a tenant arguing with a Vishkar liaison. The same conversation was happening all over the building.

“You can’t just kick people out of their homes!” Lucio protested. Suddenly, he heard wailing. Lucio turned in the direction of the cries and saw a Vishkar security guard restraining a teenage boy lying face down. Fear and rage shot down his spine. “Why you doing that!? Why’s he on his face like that?!” he snapped.

The Vishkar simply glared at Lucio impatiently. “20 minutes. Understand?”

Lucio glared back. There was violence in his eyes.

“I said ‘hey, why you doing that?!’” he shouted pushing the Vishkar’s shoulder. The Vishkar stumbled back and gestured to his two guards. They closed in on Lucio. “Hey, I’m cool. Twenty minutes,” he said putting his hands up and stepping back into the doorway. The Vishkar nodded and gestured to his men to move to the next apartment. Lucio slammed the door shut.

"I can't fucking believe this"

“Lucio...” said Sombra solemnly.

“Ugh! What the fuck!” he snapped.

Lucio nodded his head a few times in anger as he considered what to do.

“I'll call my dad,” he said, “he’ll want to know about this.” He grabbed his smart phone and frantically went through his contact list. “Come on...” he groaned impatiently, “pick up this time...” Sombra watched him, he looked shaken with anger. “Yo, dad? Its an emergency. Yeah, they are evicting the whole building... Can’t you stop this or talk to someone? You know people on the city council. Maybe a lawyer...? Naw, its gotta be now... _No, I’m telling you its not about me._ I saw a Vishkar thug beating up a fuckin’ kid! I am calm! OK... OK...” He made a motion halfway between dropping and throwing the phone against his couch after he hung up. He shook his head in frustration and disgust.

“Lucio, what is it?” asked Sombra.

“The out of touch asshole said he'd give me money to find a new place,” he said sitting down. He planted his face in his hands, “Uughh, what do I do?”

Sombra frowned. “I’m packing my stuff,” she said.

“ _Don’t_ ”

“Then whats your plan, activist?” she asked in frustration, “are you gonna make a stand?”

“Man, Sombra, I don’t need you to be angry at me right now...” Lucio moaned, “fuck, all my stuff. All my equipment, I gotta get it out of here”

“Yeah, I’m sorry but this is what its like all the time”

“Don’t do this. I mean, _I know that_ but I didn’t plan for this!” he shouted. He leaned forward causing his dreadlocks to flip over his his head as he brooded. Suddenly, he kicked the air in frustration as the realization of what was happening hit him again. “God damn!”

Sombra scoffed.

“This is how it is, they fight dirty. I’ve been kicked out like this before,” she said turning and walking to Lucio's room to pack her things.

“I’m staying then,” he called to her.

Sombra gathered her things and emerged from Lucio’s room with her backpack.

“You don’t have to impress me, _cabron,_ ” she said in a defeated tone, “come on, I didn’t mean what I said, I don’t want to go alone”

“No, you’re right,” he said picking up his phone. He thumbed it a few times and prepared to record. “I’m making my stand”

“You’re just gonna get your ass kicked...” she said putting her hand on her hip. Lucio squared his jaw and looked forward in determination. Sombra recognized that face. She shook her head. “Alright, I’m just saying, I know how this plays out”

There was a loud knock on the door.

“You have 10 minutes before you're forcefully removed!”

Sombra regarded Lucio for a moment as he sat on his couch with his arms crossed and a determined look. She sighed and stepped out wordlessly.


	12. Chapter 12

A demolitions team guarded by armored Vishkar security personnel unloaded its equipment outside the building while several armored bulldozers stood by. The place was crawling with Vishkar personnel and encircled by imposing looking military and construction vehicles. A pocket of tenants stood queued for buses headed to Vishkar’s temporary housing facility while others simply stood past the safety line in a state of dreamlike confusion, struck dumb by what was happening to them and their families. Still others argued impotently with the Vishkar liaisons making impotent threats.

Suddenly, the tenants looked towards the building's entrance when they heard violent commotion. Lucio had jammed himself in the doorway. He’d spent his entire trip down the 5 flights of stairs making himself an immovable dead weight, grabbing onto any and all fixed objects within reach and wedging himself into inconvenient spaces. This was his final stand. Two Vishkar guards pulled on his arms while a third grabbed his torso. A particularly large Vishkar bid them to get out of the way and prepared to charge from inside the building. He reared up and sprinted with the intention to ram Lucio’s body. At the last moment, Lucio let go lest his arms be broken off and the impact forced him out of the door and onto the concrete.

“You’ll be hearing from my lawyer! Naw, forget that! You’ll be hearing from _me_! I’m coming for you Vishkar,” he shouted from the sidewalk.

“Get past the line!” shouted a Vishkar security officer.

“You have fucked up, this is too far!” Lucio continued to bellow.

Sombra walked up and helped him off the concrete.

“Hey, save it,” she said.

“I thought you were gone”

“Yeah, I was going to but then an old lady asked me to help carry her stuff”

“You helped her?”

“Yeah”

“Shit, that’s what I should have done,” he said scratching the back of his neck, “or at least gotten some of my stuff. God damn, I have DJ equipment worth a fortune in there”

One of Lucio’s neighbors overheard the conversation. “They said they would transfer whatever you couldn’t move to your temporary housing assignment,” he offered.

“Yeah, right,” Lucio muttered, “you believe that? Or did they say that to get you out of there?”

The man shrugged indifferently and walked off. His eyes had seemed to have a glazed look to them, Lucio gathered that he was in shock.

A six man team with a guard detail formed up around a large canister with handles and hustled it inside the building. Another team followed in, followed by another. Lucio noticed that even the Vishkar technicians had armored vests and pistols.

“Whats with all the firepower?” asked Lucio.

“I’ll give you my take, _cabron_ ,” said Sombra, “they know what they're doing. My guess is they’re prepared for the response they think they deserve”

“I don’t like it,” said Lucio narrowing his eyes on a Vishkar security officer with an assault rifle.

Lucio had caught his attention.

“You two, get behind the line. Final warning,” he said clutching his rifle.

Lucio held up his hands and backed away. “Yeah, yeah, we don’t want anymore trouble”

Sombra and Lucio backed up behind the line which extended well into the street. Vishkar had been busy that morning setting up dividers and deploying their equipment. They'd already set up a hard light projection tower. The replacement building would be done before the end of the day. Lucio looked up at his apartment balcony. A deconstruction team had already removed the railing and were pushing his furniture out onto a garbage pile below.

“So much for saving my stuff...” he muttered.

“What are we going to do?”

“Well, we’re not going to Vishkar’s temporary housing. There’s no way they’d let you stay with me. I gotta call a friend”

 

* * *

 

They retired to a cafe where they tried to relax and ground themselves. As they had coffee, the unmistakable sound of an explosion echoed in the distance. No question as to what that was. Lucio pictured his apartment building being leveled and collapsing into a dust cloud. He shook the image out of this mind and called his friend Otavio.

“Yo, I need a favor”

“Man, its been crazy since yesterday. Everyone's been trying to get a hold of you, do you even want this job?" he said, "You've gone big, a bunch of independent residents associations contacted me and they've invited you to some kind of meeting. They want to see what our movement's about”

“Yeah, well Vishkar just got me and they decided to detonate my home. It looks like its my whole neighborhood”

"What? I haven't heard, maybe there's a blackout. Is that revenge for yesterday?"

“Dunno, but I need a place to stay... and for a friend”

“Wait, the Los Muertos girl?”

"Yeah"

There was a long pause on the other end, Lucio could hear the gears grinding in Otavio's head.

"Fuck. OK, but make sure no one sees you"

Lucio looked up at Sombra, she was frowning at him. She could hear what Otavio was saying.

“That phone encrypted?” she asked, "its your activist friend, right?"

“What?” Lucio asked.

“Do you do anything to encrypt your calls, your data?” she said in a hissing tone.

“Hello?” asked Otavio.

“I gotta go, I’ll see you soon”

Lucio hung up.

“Tell me that phone is encrypted” 

“Its not”

“ _Hijo de puta! Are you fucking dense?”_ she said throwing her hands down. “Oh my God...” she groaned as she planted her face in her hands.

“Look, I don’t know anything about encryption,” he said defensively.

“It doesn’t matter. They’re on to you. They’ve probably _been_ onto you,” Sombra said cocking her head, “you never thought to learn?”

“Just leave it,” he replied, “OK, so what do I do?”

“Don’t mention that you know. Keep that thing _the fuck off_ and let me deal with it when we get to his place, yeah?”

Suddenly, someone turned up the volume on a news report airing on a television in the corner of the cafe.

"This just in, there was an explosion at Vishkar's Rio headquarters only moments ago. Police and firefighters are reported to already be on the scene. We're working to get reporters on the ground. No word about the number dead or injured except that Vishkar's new regional public relations director has been reported missing. A Vishkar spokesperson said it was unlikely to be an accident so we're trying to determine if this was a terrorist attack..."

"What the hell..." Lucio mumbled.

A discernible feeling of dread hit his stomach.

"What is it?"

"Look," he said pointing to the television. There was footage of an explosion on the top floor of Vishkar's massive tuning fork shaped headquarters. "That's Vishkar's building. They think it might be a terrorist attack"

Sombra turned to the television and took in the footage then turned back to Lucio with a morbid grin.

"Just like Mexico..." she said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Adding Up the True Cost of Rio’s Slum Makeovers](https://nextcity.org/features/view/rio-de-janeiro-favelas-slums-transformation-gentrification)


	13. Chapter 13

Police were everywhere. Sombra and Lucio made their way to Otavio's neighborhood trying their best to take obscure paths and less trafficked routes. While Lucio's neighborhood was relatively close to the favela and typically lower middle class with some hints of gentrification here and there such as nice bars or restaurants and artisan shops, Otavio's neighborhood was thoroughly upper class and far closer in proximity to Vishkar's new developments.

“Hey Otavio,” said Lucio leaning into the building's intercom, “it's me”

They heard a buzz and opened the heavy door into the cool air of the old colonial building's atrium and made their way up its winding stairs. Lucio spoke as they climbed. “Otavio is the brains behind the whole operation. We met in school, he studied business and communication or something. He gave me the idea to incorporate activism into my music”

"Huh," said Sombra sounding thoroughly unamused.

"Don't doubt him, he handles everything. He books my shows, handles my publicity, he got me onto a small label. I got it easy, all I have to do is make music and update my social media account..."

A wirey young man in a hip patterned dress shirt leaned over the banister and called to them, "Hey Lucio!"

“Speak of the devil...”

They hurried their pace. When they arrived at the top, Lucio and Otavio gave each other a brotherly hug.

“Hey, finally! You're alive,” said Otavio as they hugged, "you were making me nervous"

"Yeah, the last few days have been nuts..." 

Otavio let go and turned to Sombra. “This is your friend?”

“Yeah, Sombra, she’s visiting from Mexico”

Sombra and Otavio eyed each other. Otavio looked for signs whether to hug or shake but he became neurotically aware of her judgmental look. She noted his outfit and shorn 'young business leader' hair. To her, he looked like an olive skinned version of the Americans who vacationed in her home town.

“Sombra?” he repeated curiously as he went in for a shake, “Shadow, is that a code name?”

Sombra extended her hand and gave him a weak smile. “Just trying it out,” she replied.

“Its interesting..." he noted, "Well, lets get inside. There's a lot to discuss”

They stepped inside his roomy apartment. The smell of foreign cooking was on the air.

“I hope Vishkar finds a way to keep this place in their development schemes. Its beautiful,” he said showing them around. They stepped into the kitchen and saw his girlfriend cooking. “Hey, smells good,” he said smooching her on the mouth.

“Heyyyy,” she replied. She noticed Sombra. “Lucio's friend, hi!" she said cordially, "Sorry, my English is not so good...”

“No, its great,” Lucio reassured.

“This is Aaryahi, she's the only one who can calm me down"

“Oh, shut up," she joked. "You can call me Ari,” she said beaming self-consciously. She extended her hand to shake. “Nice to meet you”

“Pleasure...” Sombra replied apprehensively as she took her hand.

“Oh, you have an accent too! I’m so jealous of Lucio’s English. Its not fair!” she said happily as if to brush off Sombra's awkwardness.

Ari went to hug Lucio. Sombra widened her eyes at him as Ari's back was turned to her. He mouthed ‘what?’ She nodded her head towards Ari.

“What are you making?” asked Otavio stepping up to the stove.

“Its biryani, its like Indian bachelorette food...”

“Hey Lucio, mind if I talk to you?” Sombra asked, “in private”

“Yeah”

Otavio noticed their exchange.

“Uh, there’s a guest room back there,” he said pointing round the corner.

Otavio exchanged a curious glance with Lucio before they hustled into the room. Sombra closed the door behind her.

“She’s Indian!” she exclaimed.

“Yeah? What’s the problem?”

“ _Callate!_ ” snapped Sombra, “she could be working for Vishkar!”

“She _does_ work for Vishkar...” Sombra face-palmed and muttered something to herself in Spanish at his response. “Its not anything big, she just does data entry”

“So, she does data entry,” said Sombra taking a snide tone, “ever think what kind of data she enters? Like maybe about you or her fucking boyfriend, the guy you just said was the brains behind your whole movement?!”

“No, Sombra, its the other way around, she feeds information to us”

“How do you know you can trust her, huh?” she hissed, “what's even going through your head?!”

“You’re paranoid, Sombra. We can trust these people. Ari's my friend and I’ve known Otavio since I was a kid. He's neurotic as hell, he wouldn't date an informant. Besides he's got questions about you, considering your gang affiliations”

Sombra folded her arms and Lucio watched her view of his intelligence plummet.

“Idiot, my 'gang affiliations' make me trustworthy because I have to worry about him ratting on me not the other way around," she huffed. Sombra gave Lucio a questioning look. "OK, you just got your home demolished, people have been following you around and you’re _still_ not registering what’s happening here,” she said counting off on her fingers.

Lucio glared at Sombra in silence. She raised her eyebrows at him and returned an incredulous look, as if he wasn't all there.

“I think you’re overreacting,” he said finally, “these are my friends, they want to help”

Sombra ran her fingers threw her mohawk in exasperation and tried to calm herself.

“OK, you’re still giving me your phone, dumbass,” she said holding out her hand, “jeeze, I’m not even an activist and I have to do all the thinking for you”

“Fine, take it”

He handed her his phone. She sat on the bed crosslegged and extracted her laptop from her backpack.

“I’m gonna start calling you _pendejo, pendejo,_ ” she said as she booted her pirate OS.

“What? What’s that mean?”

“Stupid”

“Why?” Lucio protested.

“Because you’re stupid, man,” she said shaking her head, “you at least get the cord, _pendejo_?”

“Yeah,” he replied resentfully as he unraveled it from his pocket.

She snatched it out of his hand and eyed the connector before plugging it in.

“Want me to get the WiFi password?” he asked begrudgingly.

“Fuck no, _pendejo._ I don’t trust anything coming out of here at all. I’ll crack the neighbor’s WiFi”

Lucio put his hands on his hips.

“Its all the same, Vishkar provides free internet for the city"

"Then I'll find something that isn't Vishkar and use that"

"So, what are you gonna do? Just stay and here and use your computer? Its impolite. What do I say to Otavio?”

“I dunno,” murmured Sombra, already getting lost in the glow of her computer, “tell him I’m fucked up”

“Yeah, right...” Lucio replied as he left the room.

He stepped into the hall and closed the door.

“She OK?” asked Otavio waiting nearby outside the door.

“Yeah, she just gets anxious...”

Ari overheard from the kitchen.

“Aw,” she said sentimentally, “well, bring her out when she’s ready. We can all eat together, I made enough for everyone." She turned off the stove and gathered plates. Otavio went to the kitchen to help. "She seems so cool. I wish I could do my hair like that for work...”

* * *

Lucio held his phone out over the dining table to show them footage of his eviction and subsequent assbeating as they ate. Ari covered her mouth as she leaned in to hear the low quality sound of Lucio being dragged. Otavio leaned back with his eyes closed and shook his head in contempt.

"Assholes," he muttered.

"I'm so sorry, Lucio," said Ari in genuine apology, "Are you OK? Vishkar says they try to evict people peaceably, I've heard stories but we never see it"

"Yeah, naw, I'm fine. But I'm ready to fight. I want to do more than expose Vishkar for what they are. We've got to stop the evictions"

"I just don't know how without putting people at risk. It can't get violent," said Otavio rubbing his chin, "its what they want, they'd love to find an excuse to put us in jail"

"I think it's already gotten pretty violent," came Sombra's voice as she entered the room, "considering what happened at the Vishkar headquarters today"

"Oh, awesome. You're OK," noted Otavio, "but that attack on Vishkar has nothing to do with us. It was probably some extremist group, they've gone way overboard"

"Thank God it wasn't my floor..." murmured Ari.

"All I know is I got my ass whooped," Lucio replied, "I don't even want to put that on Twitter. I thought I was being heroic..."

"Yuh, heroic," mocked Sombra as she pulled out her chair and plopped in her seat.

As Sombra sat, her body odor wafted into Ari's nose and sitting next to Sombra suddenly felt oddly intimate. Ari looked at her sidelong. Sombra was sitting with her elbows on the table and her legs spread out. She felt as if sexual energy was coming off Sombra's body and Ari remembered overhearing that Sombra was gay. At once, Ari felt envious and threatened by her. Whatever it was, Sombra seemed to have a big presence.

She caught Ari's eyes. Ari shifted and cleared her throat to speak. "I thought it was brave, Lucio"

“I don’t know, I’ve never felt like this before. I want to make them pay. They can’t force people out like this. What are we gonna do?"

Otavio sighed.

"Lets look at the situation, you staged your action yesterday, today they evict a ton of people, and during the evictions some kind of attack took place on the Vishkar headquarters. I think its clear what we need to do, we've got to denounce the attacks and lay low for a while"

"Lay low? You said a ton of people were getting interested in our movement. My inbox is blowing up. This could become a real thing, Otavio, not just a hashtag," noted Lucio, "and what was that thing about the resident association?"

"I mean, its a real movement already," said Otavio raising an eyebrow, "but, yeah, I talked to someone from the Rocinha resident's association, they want to meet you tomorrow"

"Tell them I'm going!"

"Do you really want to do this? I mean, if we're associated with favelas we won't be taken seriously. I think we've got a lot going for us because we're respectable," said Otavio.

Sombra snorted. "Wow," she said in utter disappointment.

"You don't know how politics works here," replied Otavio, brushing her off, "I mean, really think about it, Lucio, the city has pushed around the residents associations forever. If you make it look like you're apart of the favelas no one listens to you, they think you're a criminal. We've got students, musicians and business owners on our side. A ton of people wear our tee-shirt because they think its cool"

"Otavio, did I say that right?" asked Sombra condescendingly.

"Yeah"

"I know what a favela is because of Lucio's music, don't you think that's hypocritical?"

Ari blinked at Sombra. Lucio took on a concerned expression.

"Am I right?" asked Sombra raising her voice and making Ari cringe, "I mean, you're not _fake_ are you? Fucking say something, Lucio"

"She's right, I got started playing shows in the favelas," Lucio said with a grimace, "I owe a lot to those people. They like me because I talk about whats going on"

"Alright then, what are you going to tell them?" asked Otavio.

"I don't know, that we're staging a protest for May 1st?"

Otavio sighed.

"We can't do May 1st, its too short notice. We've been waiting on that parade permit from the city for months. Besides, if they give it to us tomorrow we still wouldn't be able to do it, we'd have no time to organize." He shifted uncomfortably in his chair as he saw Lucio take on a frustrated look. "Its more fucked up than that. You know that anti-protest legislation Vishkar's been trying to get the city to pass for months? The city's voting on it tonight and its likely to pass. We can't protest, its illegal. If we do, they'll have discretion to blast us with those sound cannons"

"I dunno, I'm starting to feel really helpless, Otavio," said Lucio bitterly as he rubbed his head, "I want to help these people"

"I'm telling you how it is, I don't want to take any risks. Besides they're after you. You've got your music to think about. You can play shows and keep inspiring people while we plan our next move"

"I _can't_ play shows... all my equipment is with Esperanza. For all I know she's been shacking up with a Los Muertos girl. She won't talk to me"

"Funny," muttered Otavio under his breath.

They sat in resentful silence as they ate. Lucio thought to himself about how many shows he really could play if Vishkar was speeding up their evictions. It looked like everything was coming apart.

Otavio finally spoke, "Lucio, I'm just trying to keep you out of jail"

"I appreciate it, man. I'm just pissed off..."

The room again went silent.

After a while Ari cleared her throat to speak. "I just want to say, this all really sucks. The new PR director came in yesterday and said she was really trying to be more sensitive to the residents. She was even talking about working with local political movements. I think she meant you guys"

"Yeah, they want to steal our brand and use it to build a fake consensus," said Otavio resentfully as he picked at his food.

Ari returned to minding her dinner, somewhat regretting she'd said anything. Otavio leaned over his food. He seemed disgruntled. Sombra felt her mood tank. As she drank in the animosity some nihilistic impulse in her wanted to make it worse.

"God, you want permission for a protest?" she said breaking the silence, "what a bunch of losers"

“Who's your friend, Lucio?” asked Otavio, putting down his fork impatiently, “why does she feel qualified to comment on what we’re doing?”

"Don't mind me, I'm off my meds," said Sombra tilting her head, "but in my country, when people don't like something they hit the streets whether anyone tells them to or not"

"Is that how Los Muertos does things?"

"No, we don't like something, we kill the person in charge until its different," she said with a sneer, "you should fire your friend and hookup with whoever bombed Vishkar today, Lucio. They have the right idea"

Ari suddenly put her hand down on the table causing the silverware to rattle then took her food and left.

"Ari works in that building, Sombra," he said glaring at her, "she tells me everyday she feels guilty about what her company does. That's why she's helping us"

"Come on, guys. Everyone feels like shit, lets just cool it"

"Forget I said anything, I don't even want to be involved..." Sombra muttered as she excused herself.

When she was gone, Lucio looked at the ceiling and sighed. Otavio scooched over and pat him on his shoulder.

"You OK, man?" he asked.

"Yeah..."

"You did good the other day, you're practically famous. We'll do a lot of good with the money we make"

Lucio smiled halfheartedly.

* * *

Sombra and Lucio stood outside on Otavio's petite balcony for a smoke. The sun was just starting to set. An unusual amount of hovercraft and helicopters were airborne over the city, especially near the Vishkar headquarters. 

"I talked to Otavio, I've convinced him that working with the residents associations isn't a horrible idea," said Lucio.

"You mean he's letting you do it"

"No, I told him I was doing it whether he wanted me to or not," he said taking a drag, "I'm going into a favela tomorrow, I guess I'm talking to some sort of representative. I have no idea how the residents associations work. Otavio told me it was stupid, that they're are all controlled by drug lords"

"Heh, sounds like home," mused Sombra, "but maybe that's exactly who you want"

"No way, I want to speak directly to the people"

"I looked into your little movement, _cabron,_ " said Sombra with an eyebrow raise, "you speak to them as long as they attend your shows and follow you on Twitter. Its not bad to have the backing of an organization"

"We'll see," he replied, "Otavio hates you, you know. You insulted his girlfriend"

Sombra eyed him then took a drag.

"I'm an anti-social bitch, what can I say?" she said after exhaling smoke from her cigarette, "you can have your phone back, by the way. You'll need to share a decryption key with whoever you message. I guess that means Otavio." Sombra pulled Lucio's phone from her pocket and tossed it to him. He fumbled but reacted quickly and caught it with both hands. "You sure you can trust him?" she asked with an amused chuckle.

"Yeah, he's just a little conservative," replied Lucio sliding his phone into his pant pocket.

"Conservative?"

"Not like politically, he's a liberal, he just doesn't like taking risks"

"Liberal?" she said, equally taken aback, "liberals will sink a project if they think it poses a real threat"

"There's no satisfying you"

"Look," said Sombra making a leery face, "your friend is a little _fresa_ , know what I mean? Like upper class. He's got light skin. He's dating a Vishkar chick. What do you call that when you're on a date? Red flags? Not good for the leader of a social movement"

"Like you're not one big red flag," he prodded.

Sombra turned her back to the railing and gave him a coy smile.

"Yeah, but you like it"

"You're sleeping on the floor by the way," he replied flatly, "you kept me up last night"

Sombra tried to hide her blush of embarrassment. 

"Aw,  _pobricito,_ you were helping me out. I was thinking of you taking it from a dude," she said raising her eyebrows at him, "am I too much for you? Do you hate me?"

Lucio shook his head with a smirk.

"No, but I don't know why I like you"

"That hurts,  _amigo,_ " she said with a frown. Her tone made something in Lucio's stomach drop. She turned away from him to watch the sun set. They were silent for a moment when Lucio heard her sniffle. Was she crying?

"Hey, Sombra... its OK, I like you," Lucio tried to reassure her, "it was just a joke"

Sombra hid her head and took another sniff. Lucio stepped next to her and put his hands on her shoulder. Suddenly, she turned around. "Fooled you"

"Aw, what the fuck, man?" snapped Lucio throwing his hands down, "seriously?"

Sombra cackled. "I'm on another level, _pendejo._ You're too much fun to mess with." When she saw Lucio's outrage her eyes turned nervous. She wrapped her arm around Lucio's back. He considered pulling away but ceded to her will. "Aw, come here, pup," she said affectionately, "salty? Its just a game"

Lucio took a breath and evened out. No big deal, he just had to get on Sombra's level.

"Naw, but you better not ever mess with me for real," he warned.

"Yeah, OK big guy," she said dismissively. Lucio glared at her. "I'm just kidding,  _cabron_!You're the only one that puts up with me. You mean too much to me to hurt"

* * * 

Otavio and Ari lay together cuddling in their bed. Snippets of Sombra and Lucio's conversation drifted in.

"They're so weird together," mused Ari.

"I don't like her at all," Otavio replied, "she's a liability. He shouldn't even be near her, Vishkar will pick it up on their cameras and we'll get an eviction notice. I'm kicking her out tomorrow, Lucio can stay but I'm not letting him keep her here"

"Then you're kicking Lucio out too. I think he's in love with her, you can see it in the way he acts around her"

Otavio scrunched his chin and gave Ari an incredulous look.

"What do you like her? She insulted you"

"Oh, I hate her," Ari laughed, "but she's so trashy its kind of hot. Did you say she was gay?"

Otavio shook his head and brushed off the question.

"I can already see her pushing him in the wrong direction. We have to make sure things don't go too far. If she does anything crazy I'm calling the police"

"Don't be like that..."

"I'm serious!" he exclaimed opening his hands, "we're at a critical moment, Lucio's about to blow up. We can't take any risks"

"She made you so grumpy..." joked Ari turning on her side.

"I'm looking out for him, he's like a brother to me. A girl like that can ruin someone..."


	14. Chapter 14

_Rocinha favela, the next day_

Sombra and Lucio had passed a BOPE checkpoint to get into the favela. The checkpoint was backed up so they didn't scrutinize Lucio or Sombra too much, merely asking them to empty their pockets and pad them down. The BOPE officers stood nervously in their berets and imposing body armor, all black, armed to the teeth with powerful plasma assault rifles. Most of the violence against police took place at night but, as Vishkar's evictions increased, some of the violence leaked into the day time. BOPE had lost 8 officers in an ambush that month and were vigilant. As the BOPE officer padded Sombra down, she couldn't help but notice the skull insignia on his beret. She thought they looked villainous.

Now they were walking through the favela's winding narrow walkways to make their way to where their contact was supposed to meet them. Lucio tried his best to navigate by GPS but the favela was mostly unmapped. The best it could do was determine if they were getting warmer or cooler as they neared their destination.

Broken surveillance cameras lined the walkways and a cheery voice coming in over a large speaker tower intermittently blared announcements, ever reminding them of Vishkar's presence. Sombra didn’t understand but the English translation followed:

“ _Vishkar Corporation cares about the economic development of Rio, visit the local Vishkar office and talk to your community’s outreach liaison about our great careers. Find your potential with Vishkar. Vishkar, building a better future for humanity..._ ”

There was far less bustle in the favela then in the city. However, it occurred to Sombra that there were not actually less people here but that they weren’t moving, instead they sat along their path on stoops and old musty couches shirtless or in light clothes to keep cool. Energetic dance music blared from a few of the low rooftops but, as Sombra looked at people's faces, they seemed bored or discontent. Only the kids seemed happy, at least while they were distracted or playing football. She averted her eyes and minded the path as they climbed.

During the trek, some onlookers pointed to Lucio in amusement as children ran up to shake his hand. To Lucio's surprise, a small child handed him back his wallet empty of cash.

"I thought people liked you here, _cabron,_ " mused Sombra.

She'd seen the whole ordeal unfold in front of her and kept quiet. 

"Heh, well, they were nice enough to leave my credit cards..." he replied inspecting his wallet.

Finally, they arrived in a small empty courtyard surrounded by colorful buildings. Clothing and electrical lines crisscrossed above them providing a modicum of shade from the hot sun.

"This is the place..." said Lucio eyeing his phone, "we're a little early"

Sombra sat down on an empty stoop as they waited. She was exhausted from heat and exertion. Somehow, in the favela it felt hotter.

"Man, I don't know why I said I'd come..." she moaned.

"I brought you because Otavio says he doesn't trust you in the house without me. You might steal something"

"Wow," Sombra replied moodily, "you know I might just steal something because he said that?" Lucio sighed and sat next to her in the shade. "Ew, no,  _cabron_ , you're sweaty and hot..."

"Hey, you Lucio?" someone called from across the courtyard.

Lucio couldn't see where he was calling from.

"Yeah!" he shouted standing up.

Suddenly, a man in a red football jersey stepped into view. To Lucio's dismay, he wore a ski mask and was carrying an old 20th century assault rifle with a massive clip that curved into the barrel. He was flanked by two other gentlemen, also armed and wearing ski masks and obscuring aviator sunglasses.

"Fuck," Lucio muttered, "he's a drug dealer"

Lucio could hear Otavio in the back of his head reminding him not to get involved in favela politics. Sombra squinted at the man but was unfazed. She was used to hanging around armed gangsters. The man stepped closer.

"You brought a girl?" he asked.

The fellow's voice was almost adolescent.

"Yeah, she's Los Muertos"

The gentleman gangsters bantered amongst themselves for a moment at this response before turning back to him.

"My buddy says Los Muertos have neon tattoos"

"Hey, Sombra, he doesn't believe you're Los Muertos"

"I'm not," she replied flatly.

"Come on, man. Don't leave me hanging..."

"Fine," she said impatiently as she got up. Sombra swaggered over and sized up the gangster's weapons then lifted her shirt halfway up and revealed the small of her back. There, above her venus dimples were three neon tattoos of vertebra. "Tell him I'm getting the rest if Los Muertos ever decides to pay me..."

The gangster inspected the tattoos as he did his best to block out the sun. Sombra pouted and shifted her eyes as he got a good look. She felt a little exposed.

Finally, he nodded in approval and Lucio gestured to Sombra that she could lower her shirt.

"So, she's real, but whats a Los Muertos doing in Rio and what are you doing with her?" Lucio balked. The gangster grinned at Lucio's apprehension. "Let me introduce myself," he continued in spite of Lucio, "I'm Lil' Nem, I run the Comando Vermelho, we're trying to figure you out Lucio. A lot of people here like your sound, they play your music at our parties, but we're not so sure about you"

"You're from the residents association?" Lucio replied skeptically.

"Yeah, I'm the president." Lucio could see his toothy grin through the ski-mask. "Lets take this inside"

 

* * *

 

They stepped into a cramped apartment on the third floor of one of the favela's colorful buildings. They entered through a barrier of hanging beads into the hazy air of the apartment. An air conditioned breeze blew into the warm apartment. Lucio noted that the smell of weed was baked into the walls of the apartment. Lil' Nem brought them to a cramped living room with a safe and a large flat screen TV.

"Sorry about the ski masks, we didn't know if BOPE would follow you," he said hucking his assault rifle on his couch and taking off the mask, "can I get you anything? Lets have a drink"

To Lucio's surprise, Lil' Nem was a teenager, he looked barely older than 18. His comrades did the same and sauntered into his small kitchen to help themselves to some cheap beer.

"Not what you expect?" asked Lil' Nem.

Lil' Nem's bodyguard handed them each a Cerveja Antarctica.

"What? No, I didn't know what to expect. I sort of thought I would be talking to some kind of official..."

"I am _the_ official," he joked with a toothy grin. He bid them to take a seat as he sat in a wicker chair. "I run the whole favela. I took over Comando Vermelho when I was 17, my dad was in charge but then he died. They said I couldn't run the gang but I killed everyone who proved me wrong, then we expanded. No one expected me to run the gang better than him. Now I provide all kinds of stuff to the people living here, we got clubs, the neighborhood association, we've pooled money together so we have a fund for when people get sick or need surgery. It used to be that when you broke a bone it would stay that way, now people can get help, its like insurance"

"That's... impressive," noted Lucio apprehensively as he sunk into his decrepit couch.

Lil' Nem's two bodyguards joined him on the couch sinking him deeper into the beast. He felt uncomfortable being in the druglord's home for that and a myriad of other reasons. A light malaise hit him from the warm air and the smell of pot.

Sombra, meanwhile, had taken her seat next to them in a blown out lazy boy. She quickly became adrift in their words, getting about 2/3rds of what Lil' Nem was saying from cognates and the basic Portuguese she'd acquired. She drifted in and out of the conversation as she drank, instead taking to exchanging amused glances with Lil' Nem's bodyguards.

"Lucio, what is it, man?" said Lil' Nem leaning forward with his trademark toothy grin. The chair creaked and his large gold chain drooped in his lap as he leaned. "You don't like me?"

He was silent. Lucio hated drug dealers. They brought drugs and violence into his shows and, as far as he was concerned, were the source of poverty and misery in the favelas.

"Look, I can help you. But I need to know if you're real or not. You talk about favela life but you don't really live down here with what we face every day. How am I supposed to know if I can trust you or not?" Lil' Nem leaned back again causing the chair to creak. "I'll tell you how we think of you, you're like the diet version, you know, compared to what we produce here. You're, uh, mainstream"

Lucio's nostrils flared from the insult but he kept his cool.

"Did I mention I produce music? I own a few studios, our quality is getting good although its not quite like yours. There are plenty of struggling artists in the favela. I'm know you've heard them, you can hear it in your music..."

Lil' Nem's gaze intensified.

"But, I tell you, nothing sells like your CDs, I'll be honest with you, I have a guy who makes pirate copies of your music. They sell like crazy. Call it even"

Lucio scowled. The idea that a compressed low quality versions of his songs were circulating on a format from the last century grated on him about as much as the fact a druglord was profiting off of them.

"I give most of my music away for free on the internet"

Lil' Nem shrugged Lucio off.

"You need a computer to use the internet, you think we have many of those around here?" Lil' Nem leaned forward again. "So, here's where you went off the rails. People used to like you a lot more in Rocinha and in the other favelas but then you started this 'Rejuvenescência' hashtag. You don't see a lot of people with your shirt around here do you? You know why? Its because it feels like all the other movements, laws, and policies that affect us but we have no say in"

Nem's words echoed around in Lucio's brain. It dawned on him that he'd been making a fool of himself the whole time. This shitty exploitative druglord had him and was calling him out. Lucio smiled flatly.

"I'm really sorry, man," he said shaking his head, "I wasn't even thinking about it, I always wanted to include everyone"

"No big deal," Lil' Nem replied simply, "I saw what you said on the news and I got to thinking, now that everyone in the city is getting a taste of what its always been like in the favelas, there's a lot of opportunities"

Lucio cringed. He had no idea what Lil' Nem meant but it probably wasn't good.

"Your movement could actually change things but its not just about getting Vishkar out. I would even say Vishkar isn't the enemy, from what I've heard, they have the right idea: build a better society. Vishkar doesn't send patrols in to kill innocent people, the government does. Its this government that's willing to pay billions of reals to redevelop the city and kill anyone who gets in their way when they won't even pay for garbage collection"

"Wow," said Lucio shaking his head and blinking, "I've never thought about it like that..."

He looked over to Sombra to see how she was fairing. She was hiding a catlike smile. Lucio wondered just how much Portuguese she actually understood.

"Think about it, 25% of Rio's population lives in the slums. Actually, forget that, about 70,000 people live in Rocinha alone. Imagine if 70,000 people hit the streets. No one could stop you"

Lucio put up his hands. "Nahnahnah, that's too much, its too crazy, it could get violent"

Lil' Nem's guards exchanged glances. Lucio could tell that they thought he was fake. Sombra tuned in and raised her eyebrows at him expectantly.

"OK, Lucio, then what's your plan?" asked Lil' Nem in a condescending voice, "what're you actually working on? What's your goal, man? I'm about to tell you to get out and I'll tell my friends that I met Lucio and he's a sellout"

"No!" Lucio snapped, "No way, I want to help. Look, we've been trying to get a march permit for May 1st but the city won't let us. If we go out anyways, they'll just hit us with sound cannons and everyone will be forced to go home. I can't do that to people"

One of Lil' Nem's body guards tapped on his buddy's shoulder and whispered into his ear then approached Sombra and offered her a cigarette. She grinned and took it and they stepped outside onto the balcony.

"Don't disappoint me, _cabron_ ," she whispered putting her hand on Lucio's shoulder as she passed.

Lil' Nem touched his forehead, as if he had a realization.

"You've got to take down those sound cannon towers, man. Easy"

"No way, its not right. I won't do anything violent," said Lucio furrowing his brow.

Lil' Nem wagged his finger at him. "Youuu," he said jokingly, "you've got to rethink what you consider violent. I make a lot of violence, I've killed people. Disabling a piece of equipment isn't violent"

Lucio nodded apprehensively.

"Yeah, but its illegal..." he said rubbing his the top of his head.

He looked up at Lil' Nem who was again grinning at him like a shark. His other bodyguard was distracted by what was happening on the balcony. He moseyed out to see what was going on.

"Lets switch this around. A few weeks ago, all the gangs got together to have a meeting. BOPE's been increasing its patrols and slaughtering us like animals in the street. So, we decided to declare a truce, no more violence. Why? So we can fight a war against the police. We started our first attack this month and there'll be more. Its our counterattack..."

Again, Lucio let Lil' Nem's words and their implications crash around in his head.

"So, what's doing something illegal?" he continued, "think about it like this, its like an experiment. You take down the towers, I tell the residents to come out on the 1st. If something comes of it, maybe we don't have to have a war"

Lucio folded his hands and contemplated in silence. He was being threatened by someone almost 4 years his junior. The condescending thought occurred to Lucio that he should probably be in school. Lil' Nem stood and held out his hand.

"Come on, everyone is outside," he said.

Lucio grabbed his hand and the wiry teenager pulled him up with surprising strength. Lucio held the grip firm and turned it into a handshake.

"I'll do it, I'll find a way to disable the towers"

"Good..." Lil' Nem replied simply and pat him on the shoulder, "you're a good guy, Lucio. Maybe you're not so fake"

He nodded towards the balcony and they stepped outside together.


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sombra indulges in some illicit fun, Vishkar forges ahead and there's trouble at Otavio's place.

To Lucio's dismay, Sombra was in the corner of the tiny wooden balcony snuggled into one of Lil Nem's body guards, railing a line of cocaine off the end of a massive bowie knife he was holding in front of her nose. Upon noticing Lucio, she delicately broke away and gave the gangster a flirtatious look from her now dilated blue eyes.

"Hey, Lucio," she said nonchalantly grabbing his shirt, "I'm a little twisted."

"Yeah, no kidding," he replied scowling at Lil' Nem's bodyguard.

She pawed at his shirt and fluttered her eyes at him. "You decide what to do?"

"Yeah, I have no idea how I'm going to do it though..."

"That's nice," she said wiping her nose, her voice was subdued by the drugs. "Ugh, let me stay here one night and I'll be queen of the favela," she said squeezing his shirt. She gave him a mischievous grin. "You have no idea what I want to do on this stuff."

"Cool it, Sombra"

"Who cares? They can't understand-"

"Your friend likes to party," Lil Nem joked as he watched Sombra gently sway herself back and forth as she held Lucio's shirt.

"Little too much..." replied Lucio wryly.

Sombra let go and sauntered back to her new friend. He'd set his knife down for her on a weathered table. Sombra flicked her hair back, bent over and railed the line. Everyone on the balcony couldn't help but notice her shapely butt in the decadent display of addiction in front of them. He watched Lil Nem's bodyguards eye her hungrily.

Lucio had had enough. He grabbed Sombra's arm as she leaned her head back and flicked her right nostril.

"We're getting out of here," he insisted.

"Hey!" Sombra complained, "I'm making friends, asshole!"

"Leaving? I'll be in touch tonight, Lucio." Lil' Nem grinned. "You turned out to be alright. You and your friend can party with us any time. Especially your friend"

"Appreciate it," replied Lucio angrily as he hauled Sombra out of the apartment.

* * * 

They stumbled out of the apartment onto the hot pavement in a huff. They'd caught the attention of a few people as they burst outside in an argument.

"What do you think you're doing?!"

" _Chale!_ " she spat, "you're such a buzzkill." She put he hand on her hip. "What, jealous? I'm not your girlfriend."

"So you're going to take drugs from a bunch of murdering gangsters?"

"Like that's new," she said resentfully, "Jesus, did you really think that was going to go anywhere? You can't let me be a cokehead and get some drugs for free?"

"Its disgusting, don't you respect yourself?"

"Pfft, no."

"Whatever, lets just get out of here, I'm done with this place, Otavio was right..."

As they made their way out of the favela, Sombra trailed behind Lucio and cursed to herself in Spanish. Slowly, she felt herself come down from her drugs. Her mood further declined as dehydration and exhaustion hit her body. She put her hands under her armpits and hunched her back as she walked.

"Hey, _cabron_ ," she called up to Lucio, "I feel sick, I need to take a rest."

"We're almost out"

"Come on!" she said stamping her foot.

"Fine..."

Sombra looked miserable. They found some shade along the path and took a seat. Sombra grabbed Lucio's arm and held tight, her skin was slick with sweat.

"Fuck, that was good coke," she muttered.

Lucio rolled his eyes. "You look like a mess."

"Yeah, I should be used to it," she said wiping her nose, "I forget how short it is..."

"I hate drugs sometimes," said Lucio resting his cheek on his knuckles, "its all fake, like its fun sometimes but it can be a replacement for enjoyment you could get doing something real. I've watched people's dopamine receptors just burn out, just don't want to put in the effort."

Sombra was silent. She was the example case.

"I wish there was a way I could make people feel good with my music so they wouldn't need that stuff," he said staring off at a Vishkar suppression tower, "I see drugs at my shows and it kills me, especially when I see people from the favelas doing them."

Sombra humphed. She decided not to let her state preclude her from commenting.

"I mean, I live with people who hold down functional coke and heroin habits. Its depression that gets them, something bad happens and they just stop taking care of themselves or go overboard. Life kills you, not drugs. Trust me, you have to hate yourself to want to do hard drugs. Why do you think I use them?"

Lucio shook his head. "It just seems like a cycle." Lucio cleared his throat. "If I'm ever rich-"

"You _are_ rich," Sombra interrupted.

"Come on, I'm middle class." She rolled her eyes at this. "If I'm ever _really_ rich, I'll just give the money to people in the favelas. Lil' Nem has the right idea. I mean, he's an asshole but he puts at least some of the money back into his community."

"Heh, sure thing, _cabron_ ," Sombra replied skeptically.

"Otavio swore he would make me rich, you know. You should give him a break," Lucio was interrupted when he noticed Sombra squeezing her nails into him. "Hey, you're griping me kind of hard"

"Man, I could really use a drink," said Sombra wiping her nose with a shiver.

"Yeah, but we still have a ways to go..."

 

* * *

 

_Vishkar Rio Headquarters_

Satya analyzed an incoming surveillance report on her desk's hologram. Ravana had been linked up to every camera in the city overnight. The data was almost total and flawless. Everything was going according to plan.

There was a knock.

It was Sanjay, she was expecting him.

"Unbelievable, Ms. Premji's not with us one day before she's detonated by this city's scum," he said as he briskly stepped into Satya's office, "I've been here a year and come to expect horrible things but this is outrageous"

"It is most unfortunate..."

"There's good news though, the city voted to pass all our recommended security proposals. We can embed Vishkar security teams with local police and make this investigation far more efficient. We'll find who's responsible"

Satya's eyes shifted impatiently. All police matters were inefficient. She had more important things on her mind.

"There is related news, Ravana is fully operational," Satya noted, "I had our engineers wire Ravana to their surveillance system as soon as we were legally permitted. Now we know where the resistance leaders are. It's likely they are the ones responsible"

"How did you know the city was holding the session? It was news to me this morning"

"Its not important, Sanjay. What _is_ important is that we have the means to gather what we need to apprehend Lucio," she said folding her arms, "He was evicted from his apartment in Gávea yesterday and he met with a druglord in Rocinha earlier today. There's a high probability he'll commit an actionable offense in the next week. All the indicators are there"

"Are you certain? Ravana has been unreliable in the past"

Satya nodded slowly and smiled. Sanjay became interested, Satya almost never smiled.

"It is statistically certain. The system was hamstrung by partial data. It is approaching perfection... Now is the time to increase the pressure," she said unfolding her arms and tapping a button on her desk. A hologram of the city appeared atop her desk. She gestured to it as she talked. "Redevelopment of the North, South and Central zones is nearing completion, however, the West Zone still eludes us. The wealthy residents have fenced themselves off to keep the influence of the slums out. We must tear down the walls and integrate all Rio's residents into the city. We'll start the evictions in Rocinha"

"Surely now that Ms. Premji is gone you're not throwing out all PR considerations?" Sanjay cringed.

"Not in the least, when they see what we intend to build in its stead we'll have the media on our side," Satya replied looking over her shoulder. Suddenly, she couldn't look Sanjay in the eye. She turned her back to him and faced the window before continuing. "And if Lucio attempts to garner any support in the Rocinha slum he will meet great difficulty. We must face the resistance now like a shot in the arm, it will do us good in the long run"

"Very good," Sanjay sighed, "I'll inform our deconstruction teams of your plans..."

Sanjay dismissed himself when he determined she was to remain silent.

Once alone, Satya slinked upon her desktop, sitting with one leg elegantly crossed over the other as she regarded Ravana's data. An interesting fact emerged. Lucio was spending time with a girl. She was unregistered. No one in Lucio's immediate social network resembled her. Facial recognition data placed her age between 19 and 31. Voice analysis couldn't pick up where she was from while her accent indicated she could be from Columbia, Mexico or Argentina. Ravana's database was incomplete, it only had access to Brazilian citizens. She was a mystery.

"Intriguing..."

Satya would need Ravana hooked up to the entire country's surveillance network to see how she got in.

 

* * *

 

"Its utterly absurd," blurted Otavio after Lucio recounted his visit in Rocinha at the dining room table. 

Ari sat at his side with her arms outstretched on the table, fiddling with her phone. She looked up catching Sombra's glare then quickly turned back to her phone.

"Yeah, it gets better, though," said Lucio squinting as he stuck his finger in his ear to clear some wax, "he says if I don't disable the towers he's escalating his war with the police"

"He's fucking with you," Otavio asserted, "why trust anything this Lil' Nem guy says?"

"OK, but why would he lie?" interrupted Sombra, "you need those towers down anyways, he's doing you a favor. He's like helping you help yourself..."

"Tell me this isn't your plan," Otavio clasped his hands together and pleaded.

Sombra got up for the bathroom and snuck a glimpse at Ari's phone.

"I know it's grim but let's do it, Otavio. If even one tenth of the people in Rocinha come out for us the city will be forced to talk to us"

They sat in silence as Otavio considered.

"Yeah, but you're talking about people from the favelas. What if someone brings a gun? What if it gets out of hand, how are you going to control these people?"

"I'll tell Lil' Nem it's going to be nonviolent or not at all..." Lucio sat back in his chair in thought then snapped his fingers. "What if we can take control of the towers? I could play my music, it would be like a show. That's huge publicity and it'll keep it light, know what I'm saying?"

Otavio planted his face in his hand.

"I can't believe you're even thinking like this..."

"Hey, I don't see what choice I have. I'm not going to be responsible for more people dying in the favelas. I owe it to these people"

"So how are you going to do it? What makes you think you can even get close to one of those towers? You don't know how they work, Vishkar tech is practically alien"

Lucio nodded towards the bathroom. Just then they heard Sombra curse to herself in Spanish and the clattering of a glass cup in the sink from the bathroom. Ari rolled her eyes.

"Hmm, Los Muertos girl? What about her?"

Lucio grinned.

"You don't know man, she's a genius with computers"

Ari blinked in surprise as Otavio winced at Lucio skeptically.

"What? You're joking. Her? But she's so..."

"Yeah, I know. But just ask her"

They heard the toilet flush and Sombra sauntered back to her chair and sat spreading out her legs. Otavio looked at her inquisitively. Sombra suddenly became aware that everyone in the room was looking at her.

"What? You all want to suck my dick or something?"

"So you're a programmer?" Otavio asked.

Sombra scratched herself.

"Something like that," she replied.

"Do you think you could disable Vishkar's sound cannon towers?" asked Lucio.

She gave him a grumpy look. "What? I said I wasn't getting involved, _cabron_. Also, I don't work for free"

"So you'll do it if we pay you?"

"Come on, Lucio. I don't want you mixed up in my work. Can't we just do something fun to take our minds off this Vishkar stuff? It's been politics since I got here," Sombra whined, "I'm crashing so hard, I just want a fucking drink"

"Are you serious? Sombra, my house was just demolished. You can't just turn off what Vishkar's doing here!"

"Watch me"

Otavio gave Lucio a deliberately dissatisfied look. He was unimpressed.

"After all we've talked about these last few days, everything you've seen? You still don't care?" asked Lucio, trying to brush Otavio off.

"It's not my fucking country, _amigo,_ " she said crossing her arms, "I'm here laying low, I've got enough problems at home"

"What will it take?"

"10,000 dollars"

"She's absurd," muttered Otavio dismissively.

"What?" replied Sombra, getting inflamed, "I've got people I owe and I'm practically homeless. I need the money. Split it between yourselves, you're both fucking rich. Otherwise, you can do it yourself. I don't give a shit"

Lucio huffed. "I can't believe this. We're friends and you're extorting me"

"We just met, _cabron_. I don't owe you anything"

Otavio widened his eyes and exhaled an exasperated sigh. "Well then..."

Sombra gave an agitated shrug at the both of them then sat back in her chair. Lucio wondered what the hell he was going to do with her. Her mood was utter shit.

"Say, what're you up to, Ari?" asked Sombra suddenly.

"Me? Oh, nothing..." she replied flatly. Ari wasn't the fondest of Sombra.

Sombra leaned over the table with a sly grin.

"Yeah? Why are you always on your phone?" she asked swiping the phone out of her hand.

"Hey! Are you crazy? Give that back!" Ari complained.

Otavio stood up immediately in outrage.

"Sombra, what do you think you're doing?" Lucio cringed.

"Just seeing what's so interesting..." she said flipping through the app's language options and setting it to English.

Ari scrambled to the other side of the table to try and rescue her device but Sombra hunched herself over the phone so no one could take it away as she fiddled with it.

"I'm warning you, get your girl under control, Lucio..."

"I'm not a girl,  _amigo_ ," Sombra replied sounding half-way amused as she expertly body blocked Ari's grabs.

"Give it back you psychotic bitch!" yelled Ari as she made a frustrated grab.

Lucio looked on helplessly as the petite girl struggled to get her phone from Sombra. Otavio rolled up his sleeves and made his way to the other side of the table to help his girlfriend.

"It's a surveillance app," said Sombra finally tossing the phone in the middle of the table, "you send in reports with it"

Ari quickly swiped it up and hid it. Otavio scowled at Sombra as he went back to his seat. She taunted him back by sticking her obscene tongue out at him.

"Ari is that true?" asked Otavio returning to his seat.

"No, it's for work. I have to fill out a survey every day. It's mandatory"

"Yeah, a survey that asks who you're with, what they did, if you saw anything suspicious. It's surveillance"

Otavio was fuming. Lucio could see that his patience with Sombra was at its end.

"Get out!" he shouted.

"Who, me or her?" Sombra asked.

"You," Otavio clarified.

She huffed indignantly. "Told you his girlfriend was a fucking rat..." she said stomping out of the room. They heard the guest room door open then slam shut. "It looks like a work phone so I bet it's bugged too," Sombra called out as she opened the front door, "you're welcome!"

She slammed it shut and was gone.

Lucio was frozen in disbelief.

"How could you do this?" asked Otavio.

"I _have_ to for work," replied Ari defensively, "I don't tell them everything"

"Then what do you tell them?"

"I just use it like a journal and describe my day, it's nothing sinister. You've never done anything suspicious so I haven't had to lie"

"Well, what about just now?"

"That's different, she's a criminal. You said you'd call the police on her yourself, Oto!"

Otavio gazed at Ari with a look of utter dread then sat down and held his head.

"Oh man, this is whack," said Lucio shaking his head.

"I can't believe you'd do this to me..." Otavio muttered, "you saw what happened to Lucio, they look for any excuse to evict!"

"I haven't done anything, look I can show you!"

She sat next to him and pulling out her phone.

Otavio pushed it away. "I don't want to see it," he said, "what do they do with the data? Where's it all going?"

"Its for a system, I'm not supposed to say but it's called Ravana or something. I don't know, it uses metadata. It helps with their planning," she frantically explained, "Oto? You know I'd never do anything against you. I know that what Vishkar is doing is wrong"

"Get your friend back, Lucio..." said Otavio rubbing his temples with his thumb and forefinger.


	16. Chapter 16

Lucio arose and stepped to the front door to invite Sombra back in. To his extreme dismay, she was completely gone. He peered down the hallway. No sign.

"Well, that's not good," he said to himself aloud.

He ran down the flight of stairs and barreled out the entrance onto the street.

She was nowhere.

"Hey kid," Lucio called to a girl juggling a football, "you seen a girl with a pink mohawk, dirty white shirt?"

She kicked the ball up and caught it.

"Nope"

"Bit late for you to be out," noted Lucio.

"You're not my dad..."

Lucio tugged at his collar to air out his old shirt as he sat on the stoop trying to think of what to do. It was night and still warm, the hot weather was already extending into the night.

Sombra was in such a bad mood, she could be anywhere. She also had no phone, there was no way he could contact her. Suddenly, he felt a sinking feeling as something dawned on him. Sombra was kind of a low life. Why wouldn't she go back to the place where she could get drugs for free?

He got up and pressed the intercom for Otavio's door. He waited but there was nothing. Otavio and Ari were probably arguing. He pressed the intercom button again and he was buzzed in after a long delay.

When Lucio returned to the apartment, Otavio was sitting at the dining room table with his head down as Ari knelt next to him and held his hand. Upon noticing him, Ari arose and gave Lucio an ambiguous look. Lucio made space for her to step by him as she silently grabbed her things and left.

"She's headed to her place, I don't know if we're through," said Otavio rubbing his face as Lucio sat, "I just can't believe she never told me"

"Hey, I'm sorry, man..."

Otavio got up and pulled down some rum from an open shelf in his kitchen.

"Ari's probably why they've been shutting down your shows. I'm sure Vishkar knows everything, watch this building become apart of their plans..." he said taking a pull and pushing the bottle towards Lucio, "so, where's your hacker friend?"

"She blasted. I think I know where she's going though," noted Lucio, "but if I'm right, l'll see the next time I meet Lil' Nem. He'll be contacting you tonight, by the way..."

They sat in silence. Lucio finally regretted not having considered Sombra's advice to encrypt his messages sooner.

"This got so serious... A drug lord? Really, Lucio? Going to Lil' Nem was probably the thing they were waiting for to get us arrested."

"I know it looks bad but we're doing the right thing. I'll tell Lil' Nem this happens our way or no way," he reassured Otavio, "its got to happen one way or another. They're censoring us by not letting us protest. I saw it the other day, they're literally shouting over us, telling us we can't speak. Taking them down is the right thing to do"

"Yeah, but we've got to rely on this girl! She wants all this money and we don't even know where she is! And we've never done anything this big," Otavio complained, "so, what if we somehow actually take down the towers and no one comes out on May 1st? We've never been able to get more than 20 or 30 people to your actions"

"Yeah, but I've played for hundreds of people before Vishkar started shutting down my shows. They came to see me and hear our message. Besides, its a holiday, people will be out. I swear it'll catch on. We've wanted to do this for months..."

Otavio shook his head and gave Lucio an incredulous look. He was so skeptical. 

"Naw, you've got to believe!" Lucio said trying to inspire him, "this city is tired of Vishkar, we just need to give them a reason to come out."

Otavio continued eying him skeptically as he took an extravagant pull of his rum.

"I just hope you're right," he replied finally slamming the bottle down, "there's really no going back now..."


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Everything's kind of raw, expect edits. This is gonna fly to the conclusion pretty fast after this...

_The outskirts of Rocinha favela, the next day_

Lucio stared at the imposing section of the wall cordoning off the favela and scratched his head. The government claimed it was to protect the environment but everyone knew it was to keep the residents in. Earlier, he'd tried entering through the checkpoint. Citizens weren't allowed in while BOPE was conducting pacification operations. Climbing the wall was his only option.

He'd only caught a few hours of fitful sleep. He and Otavio had spent the night getting the word out to his social media followers that they'd be staging on action on the 1st of May. Otavio summoned his good faith and sent a cryptic message to Lil' Nem agreeing to meet again that day.

Lucio planted his foot against the wall then popped up planting the other against the side of a nearby building. Slowly, he shimmied himself up until he was at the wall's height which was about 7 stories. He kicked off the building and held on to the lip of the wall for dear life. When he pulled himself up he found himself looking directly into the lens of a surveillance camera.

“Shit,” he muttered.

Now there was really no going back.

He looked around for a good place to plant his hands. It was looking like the security camera was the only option. He hoisted himself up to the other side of the wall and looked over his shoulder. It was risky, but he gauged he could make it. He leaped for it and grabbed on.

To his dismay, it was not well secured.

Its stand broke and he slipped but didn’t fall. Lucio’s eyes bugged as he realized the camera was only supported by its wiring which was stretched against the lip of its metal housing. Slowly, he watched the screws holding the top section of the metal sheathe strain as they were pulled out of the wall by his weight. Suddenly, he dropped a couple of feet until the wire was caught against the next section of its metal housing.

It held.

“God damn Vishkar, all that hard light shit and they make a cheap ass camera?” Lucio cursed as he dangled.

Two favela kids on the pavement below watched Lucio.

“Hey, get a ladder!” he shouted. They continued to watch him with amusement. “That’s fucking lit,” he muttered in frustration, “what’s with kids today?”

Suddenly, the housing broke but this time all the way and he rode the wire down until he smacked against the favela wall and fell. The kids scattered as Lucio was dusted with chunks of cheap building material, laughing as they ran.

Lucio brushed himself off and regarded the new scrape on his shoulder.

“Ow”

He stretched and prepared himself for the long hike up the hill to Lil’ Nem’s place.

* * *

Lucio passed through the hanging beads in the entrance of Lil' Nem's den of iniquity to witness Sombra draping herself on the drug lord in a Brazilian swimsuit top as he sat on his decrepit lazy boy and smoked a fat blunt.

"Hey, Lucio," said Sombra fanning her fingers at him nonchalantly.

 _Queen of the favela_ , thought Lucio.

"Lucio, my man, you're back!" Lil’ Nem greeted, “some kids told me you were coming...”

"Yeah," he growled.

Lil' Nem exchanged a look with Sombra then caught Lucio’s jealous expression.

"Don't be that way, we can't understand a word of each other. Its purely physical."

Lucio scoffed and Sombra smiled at him innocently. Something in her smile told him she was giving Lil' Nem a solid case of blue balls. It pissed him off nonetheless.

Nem stood, sending his pot smoke wafting into Lucio's face. "So, you think about our deal?"

"Yeah, I'm doing it but I need her," said Lucio waving the smoke out of his face with a little cough.

"Oh, you want her, man? Trust me she's not worth the trouble..." replied Nem with a smile.

"There's another thing, I need you to guarantee that the protest will be non-violent. Taking down the towers isn't license for you to take over"

"Huh," mused Lil' Nem, "what makes you say that?"

"I don't exactly trust you"

Lil' Nem blew smoke in Lucio's face. "You do it whether you trust me or not..."

As the smoke washed over him he was reminded of the malaise he felt in Lil' Nem's hot apartment the other day. He felt his energy become muddled but caught himself and kept his wits about him.

"You must not have a way of taking down the towers or you would have done it already,” Lucio retorted with a cough, “otherwise you wouldn't need me. If we don't do it my way the tower's aren't coming down"

Suddenly, Lil' Nem drew a spring loaded knife to Lucio's neck.

"You're a big man, now, huh?" taunted Lil’ Nem, nonchalantly holding his blunt as he threatened him. Just as quickly as he drew the knife to his throat it was against his inner thigh. "What makes you think you know anything?"

Suddenly, Lucio thrust his hips forward, locked Lil' Nem's knife hand in his thighs and twisted the knife out. It was literally a ballsy move. The knife clattered on the floor. While Lil’ Nem was caught off balance, Lucio took the surprised gangster in a headlock.

“No need for that," replied Lucio as he pushed the gangster away.

Lil' Nem stumbled forward and turned to Lucio in surprise.

After a short delay from their awe, Lil’ Nem’s bodyguards stood and drew their guns at Lucio.

“Woaw,” Sombra purred in a creaky voice.

Lucio's eyes switched back and forth between the guards. He could tell they weren't going to shoot. Sombra slinked over to Lil' Nem and told him in her stilted Portuguese that she liked Lucio.

"Yeah..." he said rolling his shoulder in frustration, "I won't kill him"

"So, what's it going to be?" asked Lucio as the two guards lowered their guns.

"Yeah, you have some moves, but you have no leverage"

"I have the movement, we can demand something better for the favelas, that's if you participate"

"Politics," Lil' Nem spat as he puffed out his chest, “we don’t have to listen to you”

“Sit down,” beckoned Lucio. The gangster glared at him with some combination of incensed rage and incredulity. “Nah, its not like that, we’re just going to talk,” said Lucio sitting on the blown out couch.

Lucio lifted his legs in surprise as he clumsily sank in then regained his composure.

Apprehensively, the gangster sat on his wicker chair, his throne. He couldn’t tell if Lucio was ridiculous or some kind of savant.

“Do you want to do this forever?” Lucio asked, “I mean look at this place. I’m not saying you’ve got it bad but...”

“No, look at me, man. I’m barely 20 and I have things you’ll never have, I do things you’ll never be able to do,” Lil’ Nem spat, “you think you’re better than us?”

Lucio shook his head.

“That’s all good but you’re not Pablo Escobar and you never will be. What about a normal life? I know you care about this community but you’re killing them at the same time you help them. People want to escape the violence, they’re doing drugs to get away. What if you could give them a chance?”

“You’re a real idiot, Lucio. Things will never change”

“I want to work with you. Don’t think of this like a deal, its a partnership...” offered Lucio. Lil’ Nem regarded Lucio in silence, uncompelled. Lucio exchanged glances with Sombra. She was frowning. “OK, think about it this way,” Lucio said, trying his best to be convincing, “you’ll get real power. We’ll bring them to the table and make demands. If we come out in force on the first and then again and again. They won’t be able to stop us. We won’t even need guns. When they see that this movement is _everybody,_ there’s no way the police will fire on us”

“What’s the point, we march and make demands? What if they say no, or better, they say yes and do nothing? I’m not dumb, I’ve seen marches before, they’re useless”

“Lucio,” said Sombra, “you’re not going to get him that way. If you want to make change you have to get the people in power out”

She'd spoken in English.

“What did she say?” asked Lil’ Nem.

“We need to get the people in power out...”

Lil’ Nem leaned forward and tapped on his head.

“Ahhh, she’s right! She’s a smart one, this girl. That’s why I like her,” laughed Lil’ Nem. He turned to Sombra. “Hey, you give great head. Will you marry me?” he asked.

“Yeah, whatever,” she replied in rather bored sounding Portuguese.

“She has no idea what I’m saying,” Lil’ Nem joked turning back to Lucio.

“Lets focus,” Lucio asserted, brushing off the weird comment, “the other day you said we had no goals. So, I’m deciding what this is about now, we’re getting rid of the people who did this to us. We’ll demand they resign. That’s something the whole city can get behind”

Lil’ Nem leaned back and pondered.

“You want me to have a normal life, huh?” Lil’ Nem mused as pot smoke twisted around his face.

The sounds of distant gunshots rang from outside the apartment window.

"Hear that? BOPE is conducting an operation in Rocinha today. Those bullets are meant for me but they won't find me," he said with a grin. Lil' Nem leaned towards Lucio and tapped him on his knee with his knuckle. "And this fucker wants me to have a normal life!"

Nem and his bodyguards laughed around Lucio in a prolonged almost hysterical unison as Lucio watched them with an awkward smile waiting for them to stop.

Eventually, Nem wiped his eye and slowly regained his composure.

“Normal life..." he chuckled, "speaking of normal, the more I read about 'normal' politics the more I want to be like a—how do you call them?—investment banker. They put me to shame. I think I’d be pretty good...” Lil’ Nem snapped his fingers and one of his bodyguards pulled out a large bag of weed and blunt wraps from his shorts and handed them to his boss. “OK, make me some promises, Lucio. You’re taking the towers down. I’ll get the people in the favela to go to your march. What else? You want me as a partner but this doesn’t seem real yet, I need insurance”

Sombra looked at Lucio expectantly as Lil’ Nem rolled a blunt on the glass table between them.

“What if...” Lucio said ponderously, “what if you produced my music? You said you have studios. You produce my music, I’ll give you 50% of my profits. That way you make money from everyone who buys my stuff and legally. Not just from the favela”

“What was that?” asked Lil’ Nem with his finished blunt hanging out of his mouth.

“You heard me,” Lucio replied, raising an eyebrow.

Lil’ Nem snapped his fingers again and a bodyguard got up to fetch a piece of paper. “Lets get that in writing. You don’t know, Bruno here is a notary, right boss?”

“Yeah, boss” his bodyguard mumbled, handing Lil’ Nem a piece of paper and a fat pen.

He scribbled on the piece of paper, _Lucio to give Lil’ Nem 50% of his profits in exchange for producing his music,_ in his messy loopy handwriting then signed it and handed it to Lucio to read. Lucio scanned it over.

“Alright...” Lucio said taking the pen from the grinning gangster. This was happening way faster than he imagined. His pirated albums must be selling like crazy. “Man, Otavio is gonna kill me,” he muttered under his breath as he signed it with his comparatively flat signature.

Lucio pushed the pen and paper across the glass table to Lil' Nem.

“We’ll get a more official looking one later...” said Lil’ Nem handing the paper to Bruno. Bruno signed and dated it then moseyed over to the large black safe next to the plasma screen and to deposit it within.

Lil’ Nem clapped his hands together. “Alright, I think I’m liking you more and more, Lucio—and you can fight. What happened to you, man?”

“I guess now I got nothing to lose...” said Lucio rubbing the back of his neck, “but this means there’s no violence”

“That wasn’t in our agreement,” Lil’ Nem replied with a shit eating grin. Lucio recoiled in horror and immediately felt a bitter taste in his mouth. “I’m just kidding, man,” he laughed, “we do it your way, ‘non-violent,’ right? At least, for now”

Lucio sighed with relief.

Lil’ Nem let Sombra unwrap herself from his body and stood to shake Lucio's hand. Lucio stood in kind.

“Actually, naw,” said the gangster lowering his head and stepping around the table, “I’ll give you a hug”

He hugged Lucio awkwardly around his arms. Lucio exchanged a nervous glance with Sombra as she watched the hug. She beamed at him with a sly smile.

“I knew music was just a hobby,” she sneered as Lil' Nem let go.

"Hey, lets celebrate!" announced Lil' Nem with a clap of his hands, "I don't care what BOPE is doing today, they won't bother us if we're having a good time. Call some girls, tell 'em the real Lucio's here and he's alright"

At once, his bodyguards were texting and making preparations.

“You understood that?” asked Lucio, continuing his private conversation with Sombra, “how much do you understand?” Sombra shook her head with a coy smile. “And I thought you didn’t give a shit about what happens here...”  

Sombra put her hand on her hip and swayed.

“I guess I’m full of surprises...”


	18. Chapter 18

The girls arrived along with a slew of tattooed gangsters of all genders sporting tracksuits, football jerseys, and bleached hair. The apartment was inundated with a small crowd of rowdy chatting favela residents. Everyone was interested in Lucio and wanted to meet him. He had a drink, turned on his charisma and got to know them. The massive speaker’s next to Lil’ Nem’s plasma TV pumped a low bitrate version of his songs.

Eventually, Lucio broke away from socializing and looked for Sombra. She stood with her back to the wall swaying in a way that Lucio recognized was her playing coy as a dude in a white wife-beater and football shorts tried to chat her up in Portuñol. Upon closer inspection, Lucio could see that she was eyeing a girl across the room as she chatted.

Lucio politely interrupted and brought her aside into the kitchen.

“Will you do the job?” he asked.

Sombra shrugged and looked at the ground. “Yeah...”

"You still want 10,000 dollars, huh?"

"That's what I said, _amigo,_ " she said inspecting her swimsuit ties.

"Right," Lucio replied shaking his head, "Otavio said he'd do it—"

"Another thing," Sombra suddenly interrupted, looking him in the eyes, "I want it in cash and you're coming with me"

"I'm what?"

"I said you're coming with me! You weren't planning on having me do all the work, right?"

Lucio awkwardly scratched the back of his head. "Um, I figured since we were paying you—"

Sombra frowned and put her arm over his shoulder.

"Look at that tower," she said walking him towards the window and pointing to a Vishkar suppression tower in the distance.  "You're gonna have me climb all the way up that thing by myself?" she asked as she walked her fingers up the tower.

"10,000 dollars is a lot of money..."

" _Meda tu pinche guey!_ " she said slapping him upside the head, "sorry, I get a little handsy off my meds..."

"Heh," Lucio replied rubbing his head and discreetly pulling himself out from under his arm, "naw, it's OK. I'll go with you"

"Also, I'm not a super genius," she said pulling him back close, "if I can't disable the thing I'll just break it. Got it?"

"OK..."

"And another thing, I don't work until you pay me"

Lucio shrugged Sombra off.

"OK OK, I got it"

"Why you being like this, Lucio?" she said grinning at him affectionately, "I got a few more things to tell you..."

Lucio frowned.

"What, do you have a problem with me?" she asked becoming impatient, "what did I do?"

"Yeah, you ran off. And what's with you and Lil' Nem? Are you trying to disrespect me?"

Sombra blinked. "I'm using him for drugs," she said flatly.

"You hook up with him?"

"I think you know my style, _cabron_ ," she said with a chuckle.

Lucio threw down his arms.

"Aw what? Come on, Sombra!" Lucio exclaimed in frustration.

"I don't get it, what's your problem?" she said folding her arms, "why can't I just do what I want?"

"Guess being into girls is some fake shit when it comes to drugs," Lucio snipped.

Sombra's nostrils flared in offence as she glared at him with contemptuous eyes. Lucio realized he'd made a huge mistake.

"Huh, you know, maybe I won't do the job..." she said stepping by him.

He held out his arm to stop her.

"Look, I'm sorry—"

"Get out of my way!" she snapped throwing her arms up and storming through.

He grabbed her arm and turned her towards him. "You disrespected me, Sombra. I'm your friend. You think you can walk all over me?"

Sombra’s reaction caught the attention of the fellow previously trying to flirt with her. He tapped on his friend’s shoulder and he turned to face Lucio. They eyed him disapprovingly, trying to look tough.

"It's nothing personal, _cabron_ ," said Sombra yanking her arm from Lucio’s grasp, "if you got a problem work it out with Lil' Nem"

"Fuck him. He's not paying you, I am. It's 10,000 dollars, Sombra"

She turned around. She'd forgotten about the money.

"Right," she spat, "well, get me the money and we'll talk," and she was off, headed back to the party.

The disapproving gangsters turned their attention back to Sombra as she rejoined them.

Lucio felt frustration set in. He punched the wall to relieve it. The punch had been halfhearted but when he withdrew his fist he noticed he'd actually left a hole in the cheap material. He regarded his hand and exhaled. Sombra had sent him over the edge. It wasn't at all like him. He sighed and ran his hands over his dreads a few times. _She’s just a girl,_ he thought to himself.

She was fucking with him. Why now?

After regaining his composure he stepped out onto the balcony to call Otavio.

"Hey... yeah, I’m at a party... I found her, she wants the money in cash... I know... I know... there's another thing, I need you to be calm when you hear this. I promised Lil' Nem 50% of the profit from our record sales..."

Lucio cringed as nondescript shouting and cursing erupted over the other side of the line.

"No, it was my idea. He's willing to do it our way now..." He spotted Sombra inside the apartment chatting up some girl out of the corner of his eye. Lil' Nem was hovering over them with his trademark toothy grin. "Whoops gotta go..."

 

* * *

 

The sun set behind Satya as she stood brooding over her desk. A 3D map of the city was projected across its surface with numerous hovering modals representing where Lucio had been over the last 48 hours. The Ravana system had triangulated that he was somewhere in Rocinha favela.

Satya picked up a floating modal with the most recent time stamp. It streamed footage of Lucio staring directly into the camera as he scaled the border wall of the favela.

“Poor fool,” she said as she closed it in her fist.

With another elegant gesture she picked up a modal showing the wave form of Lucio’s conversation with Otavio. With a tap the audio began to play. Satya listened intently.

 _The girl with the pink hair,_ she thought.Satya parsed the metadata tags assigned to the data. Several modals linked to the first appeared. She tapped the modal with Ari’s face. The data was incomplete, she was present for the conversation but hadn’t submitted her report.

Satya frowned.

Regardless, it was clear from the data at hand that Otavio was essential to the Rejuvenescência movement.

“You’re so infatuated with that machine,” commented Sanjay as he stepped into Satya’s office.

She closed the display and sighed.

“I request that you knock before you enter, you know I don’t like to be disturbed”

“I’m well aware but these are extraordinary circumstances. The deconstruction teams outside of Rocinha are about to move out-”

Satya quickly shook her head, why was Sanjay giving her this irrelevant information?

“They may proceed”

“Ms. Vaswani,” Sanjay said lowing his chin, “they’re being blocked by the Police Special Operations Battalion. They’re still conducting pacification operations inside the favela”

Satya frowned.

“We’re permitted to demolish entire blocks in the formal city but when we move into the favela we’re met with red tape? Just tell them to proceed” said Satya impatiently with a wave of her hand.

“You’ll have to talk to the BOPE commander. They are most displeased they weren’t notified in advance. The commander insists it is not safe for our crews”

“Delays!” she cursed, “it is of _strategic_ importance that we start deconstruction while Lucio is in the favela”

“I understand, but there’s nothing we can do. The police are willing to cooperate but only if they know of our plans”

“Then I’ll take matters into my own hands as before...” Satya asserted, “its all but certain Lucio and his friend are terrorists. If we cannot begin evictions and deconstruction in Rocinha today, we will isolate Lucio and his associatesby other means”

Sanjay perked up at this comment with a dismayed look. Satya tapped on her desk console and the holographic map was restored.

“We don’t have plans for Leblon, where Lucio’s associate lives. We’ll have to introduce them,” she continued as she pointed to where Otavio lived on the map.

“That’s a wealthy neighborhood...” said Sanjay shuffling uncomfortably, “whatever you’re thinking, I find it most unadvisable, we’re lucky the situation with Calado panned out in our favor”

Satya pressed a button on her desk and a drawer popped out with her engineering headgear. She eyed it intently as she spoke.

“This is a calculated risk. The situation is critical, Lucio and his movement are going to target our suppression towers. I will not let them interfere with our plans.” With a few taps on her desk’s console, information on Otavio and Lucio began to stream in front of her. “Take this information, I’ve included specific instructions for the police. You are to send it to them immediately when I return...”

 

* * *

 

Lucio made his way through the crowd of the small apartment, keeping Sombra in sight. He knew what was happening and immediately thought it was bullshit. Suddenly, a girl on a tube top stepped in front of him and grabbed his waist.

"Heya, Lucio..." she said with drunk flirtatiousness.

Lucio was too polite to tell her to piss off and that he wasn't interested.

"Yeah, hey, sorry I'm..." he muttered as he glimpsed Sombra disappear into the hallway with her hookup and Lil' Nem. He swore silently and pushed the girl aside to try to get to Sombra. When he arrived at the hallway, he witnessed Lil' Nem's door close with a click.

"Fuck!" Lucio cursed.

He stood frozen as he felt his blood boil. Quite suddenly he hated Sombra. Lucio took a breath and held the anger in his chest then moseyed back over to the tube top girl and apologized. He got her a drink and they took a seat on Lil’ Nem’s blown out couch next to three gossiping afro-latina girls sitting in tight formation. He sank into the couch suddenly causing him to inadvertently kick his feet up.

He caught himself.

“Every time,” he muttered as the three girls giggled at him.

As they sat on the couch flirting, Lucio felt his blood continue to boil. This was not at all mitigating his anger.

 _I’m not an angry or irrational person,_ he tried to think, _she’s just gaming me to get a rise, all I have to do is play cool..._

Lucio’s eyes wandered to the hallway as he found himself hyperfocusing on trying to ignore whatever sounds might come from down there. Suddenly, he felt something snap loose. _I don’t have to take this,_ he thought.

“Excuse me,” he said abruptly standing up and moving towards Lil’ Nem’s room.

He felt himself be carried. There was a fleeting thought that Sombra was making him do this. Upon arriving outside Lil’ Nem’s door he was sure he heard a coital moan and he was sent over the edge. The vaguely rational part of his brain told him the building was cheap. He reared up and kicked the door against its lock and the latch burst out the other side as the door swung open.

“Lucio!” exclaimed Sombra, covering her breasts as her hookup jumped with a scream.

Sombra’s face was a complicated mix of surprise, outrage and amusement.

“I’m giving you the right to half my profits _but I’m not giving you_ _the right to fuck my_ _girl_!” roared Lucio as stormed over to Lil’ Nem and pulled him naked off his mattress.

Sombra’s pull gave another scream and scrambled off the bed to the corner of the room.

“Hey, come on, man!” complained Lil’ Nem in an oddly nonchalant manner as Lucio hauled him up and pinned him against the wall, “no hard feelings!”

Lil’ Nem’s face was red with embarrassment, Lucio knew that he was getting off on one upping him and it pissed him off. Lucio held him and socked him in the face. He stumbled to the floor and tried to recover. Lucio took a fighting stance, he was ready to beat the shit out of Lil’ Nem. As Lil’ Nem recovered he tried to take his brass knuckles off his dresser and assume a fighting stance but Lucio again socked him in the face. A group of people assembled in the door to check out the action.

Nem quickly shook his head to try and orient himself after Lucio’s punch and they circled in the small room, kicking aside old clothes and bric-a-brak, until Lucio briefly caught sight of Lil’ Nem’s flaccid uncircumcised penis. He raged. Again, Lil’ Nem couldn’t help fighting with an embarrassed smile as Lucio collided with him and violently pinned him to the floor.

Lucio managed to give Nem’s face one more solid punch until he was held back by several party goers. As he came to, realizing what he’d just done, Lucio regarded his own hands in horror. Suddenly, he realized Sombra had been yelling his name.

“Lucio! Lucio! I get it!” she laughed.

Lucio looked up from his hands when he realized Lil’ Nem was fumbling amongst his clothes. In a split second he was staring down the barrel of a handgun. He felt his rage subside and suddenly sobered up. The poor naked girl in the corner was still huddled in on herself, looking at them with paranoid eyes.

“Ey, Lil’ Nem,” Sombra said sauntering over to him and rubbing her hands over his body to relax him, “remember what he did for you”

“Maybe I put a bullet in his foot so he knows not to fuck with me when I’m fucking,” Nem threatened, regaining his composure. Sombra turned his chin towards her and shook her head. Slowly, he lowered the pistol. “Alright, everybody out!” he fumed and the room cleared of party goers. “You too,” he said pointing the pistol at Sombra’s hookup.

She scampered out in the nude, terrified.

“Man, what the fuck?!” cursed Lil’ Nem waving his pistol at Lucio, “so much for non-violence, huh?”

Lil’ Nem threw the gun on the bed next to Sombra and pushed his hands against his lower back to stretch. Nem’s small pot belly extended outward. Sombra averted her eyes and snickered at him.

“So you’d do this for her?” he asked.

“I, uh, don’t really know what came over me...” replied Lucio looking at the floor.

At that moment, Lucio’s phone rang. The room stared at him awkwardly as he let it ring. “Um, let me take this,” he said as he finally, with equal awkwardness, pulled it out of his pocket.

It was Ari. He answered.

“Lucio, I’m at Otavio’s place. I called him and heard a struggle then nothing. Now I can’t get in. I’m really scared,” she said in a panic, “there’s something else, I think I’m being followed”

“What the hell?” Lucio was barely able to reply when she hung up.

He sighed.

“Sombra,” said Lucio turning to her, “I’ve got to get back to Otavio’s place. He’s in trouble. You coming?”

Sombra whispered in Lil’ Nem’s ear.

“Yeah,” he grunted in resignation.

She unfurled herself from Lil’ Nem and grabbed her little bathing suit top off the floor then pranced over to Lucio.

“I’m coming,” she replied with a devilish grin.

Her grin faded, however, when she realized that Lucio was frowning. It was serious.

One of Lil’ Nem’s bodyguard poked as he cursed and reached for his boxers, it looked like he wasn’t getting laid tonight. At least, not by Sombra.

“Boss, a BOPE patrol was spotted nearby,” the bodyguard warned.

“Fuck!” Lil’ Nem cursed.

“Another thing, Vishkar trucks are outside the favela but the police stopped them”

“Man, what is going on?” groaned Lil’ Nem as he rubbed his face and sat on the bed, “Alight, Lucio. Go. But this happens again and I kill you”

“Right. So, whats the fastest way out of the favela?” asked Lucio looking into Sombra’s eyes. They seemed quite interested in him now.

* * *

“Do you love me, _cabron_?” Sombra snickered under her breath as they sneaked their way along the narrow favela path, “do you want to marry me, Lucio?”

“Shhh!” Lucio hushed.

A BOPE patrol was further up. Lucio could see the flashlights affixed to their plasma rifles flitting about as they tried to spot gunmen. Their radios periodically chirped and emitted garbled voices before going silent.He’d have to evade them to get out of the favela.

The distorted chopping sound of hovercoils came from above as a police hovercraft passed overhead shining its searchlight into the favela windows. They could still hear the thumping of Lil’ Nem’s party in the distance.

“If the cops are really after him, Lil’ Nem is fucking crazy for throwing a party tonight...” muttered Lucio as they hid around the corner of the low terrace wall lining the path.

“I asked you a question, _cabron,_ ” Sombra half-whispered drunkenly.

“Why do you care all of the sudden? My friends are in trouble... and I don’t know! I like you a lot!” Lucio hissed under his breath, “now be quiet!”

“That’s stupid, I’m fucking crazy, _pendejo,_ ” Sombra murmured, “I’m like a slut, a nympho... I steal and I lie. You know I stole your bank account?”

“You what?”

“Chyeah, you have all your credit card info saved on your phone and your laptop, _pendejo_ ”

Lucio rolled his eyes. “Well, I don’t care. I said I’d be friends with you so I’m friends with you,” he said keeping a close eye on the patrol.

This conversation was sobering Lucio up. The BOPE patrol was disappearing out of sight as they made their way down the terrace steps, it was almost safe to move up the path.

“Yeah, but that’s not what I asked, bro,” quipped Sombra.

“I might kind of like you more than just liking you,” said Lucio in a hushed tone, “Ready? We move on three...”

“That sucks. I like girls, bro. I only hookup with guys when I want something or I’m drunk enough to not mind they’re not a girl,” replied Sombra as he counted down.

“Three!”

They slinked up the path and took cover behind a garbage can. A BOPE commando turned around on suspicion that he heard something and scoped out the path with his plasma rifle sight. A searchlight from the hovercraft above happened to illuminate the path near where he suspected the noise came from and convinced him there was nothing.

“OK, so I don’t _love_ love you. Or I don’t know if I love you. But I care about you. I feel strongly for you,” Lucio frantically explained under his breath, “you’ve made me feel ways and do things I never would have... I mean this whole thing-”

“Focus, _pendejo,_ ” Sombra interrupted.

“Right...”

Lucio peered around the trashcan.

“What are we even looking for?”

“We’re looking for a hostel named ‘Roupa’ then we just walk along the border of the ecological park, scale a wall, and drop down next to a tunnel and catch a ride. No problem”

“Yeah, no problem,” mocked Sombra in dumb voice. She tugged her backpack strap to make sure it was secure to ready herself then regarded Lucio’s face. “So, you don’t love me?”

“I’d say its complicated. I haven’t known you for that long,” said Lucio straining to see if the way was clear.

“Aw, well, I love you, _cabron_. In my own way. I like that you go nuts and get stupid for me. Makes me feel powerful.” Sombra spotted some graffiti on the low terrace wall as a searchlight passed over it. It was of a rather disturbing looking black baby sucking on a pacifier in the shape of a bullet. “What happened here, Lucio?”

“I don’t know, its always been like this...”

* * * 

They rambled down alleyways and climbed across rooftops until they were near the hostel. There they followed along the border of the park until they arrived at the remnants of an aquaduct originally meant to prevent erosion of the cliff face but was now hopelessly destroyed.

They climbed the ruins and stood in the concrete bed of the aqueduct. The top of the four story favela wall was now at a comfortable chest height albeit a bit of a jump away. The only problem was that it was lined with barbed wire.

“Does a wall that’s supposed to protect the environment need barbed wire, huh?” cursed Lucio.

Sombra put her hands on her hips and sighed. “So, whats the plan now, genius?”

Lucio scanned the wall through the darkness and spotted a dip in a section of barbed wire by the lights of the passing cars below. Someone had thrown a rug over it.

“Look,” he said pointing to the rug.

“Oh my God, Lucio. You can’t be- you’d have to be _loco_ to try to make that”

“Naw, look, its perfect, you just have to run along the path here and jump”

“OK then, speed guy, you do it”

Lucio shrugged then rolled his neck to loosen up. He bounced up and down on his feet a few times then suddenly sprinted, pumping his hands down to give him momentum and running as fast as he could down the length of the derelict aqueduct. At the end, he leaped and sailed through the air, catching the rug under his arms. He propped himself up until he was resting on the wall in the shape of a “U.”

“Lucio!” Sombra shrieked, “ _pinche guey,_ are you fucking crazy?!”

She hadn’t at all expected him to do it.

“I did it without thinking,” Lucio shouted, the nervousness was palpable in his tone, “Uh, I don’t know how to climb down...”

“Oh my God,” fretted Sombra gripping her hair.

“Hold on a sec”

Lucio carefully swung his leg over so he wasn’t stuck by barbs and repositioned himself so he was facing towards Sombra.

“Yeah, I’m looking and I can’t really see a better way to do this. You gotta just run”

“God damn it, Lucio! I’m not in shape to do this!”

Lucio laughed somewhat maniacally. “No really, Sombra, its cool. Just... don’t think about it”

“I haven’t had anything to eat today, just speed,” Sombra called to him. Suddenly, Lucio dropped down with an “oof.” “Lucio!” she shrieked again.

“I’m OK! That wasn’t like intentional but I’m good!”

“I’m going to kick your God damn ass when I get over there!”

“Yuh, OK!” Lucio shouted back, sounding a little punch drunk, “I’m going to go look for stuff to help you down”

She heard him trod off.

“Lucio?” Sombra called over the sound of passing cars. There was no response. “Lucio?” she called again after some time. Nothing. Sombra held herself nervously when she realized she was alone. “FUCKING LUCIO!” she shouted stamping her foot.

“WHAT?!” he snapped back over the sounds of barking dogs, stirred by their shouting.

“Why did you leave me here?!”

“I found a long-ass stick someone nailed some wood planks onto, I think its supposed to be a ladder. You still have to make the jump, though”

“God...” Sombra whined.

She planted her feet and zeroed her gaze in on the carpet.

“Come on! We got to go! Otavio’s in trouble!”

“I’m working on it!” Sombra shouted before sprinting down the pipe.

She booked it, running at full power trying to copy Lucio’s form. Upon reaching the end of the pipe she jumped and sailed through the air landing slightly below where Lucio had. She hit the carpet with her chest and slipped, there was nothing to grab onto. Sombra realized she was going to fall. She grit her teeth and gripped onto the carpet material for dear life so it bunched in her hands. Slowly, she clawed her way up and over like a cat trying to climb curtains. Lucio held the makeshift ladder below as she climbed herself down wide-eyed mouthing “what the fuck.”

“Hey, you made it!”

Sombra took off her Converse and began repeatedly whacking him with her shoe ranting a slew of Spanish obscenities as he laughed and dodged her strikes. Finally, she calmed down and they sat together to catch their breath. Lucio called a car with his phone.

“Told you you could do it”

“ _Callate!_ You did not tell me _once_ I could make it, _pendejo_!” Sombra snapped, “you only told me how easy it was!”

Lucio gently grabbed Sombra’s arm and squeezed her bicep.

“I thought you said you weren’t in shape”

“You are so fucking annoying,” she said swiping her arm back.

Their car arrived and they piled in. Lucio gave the driver directions for Otavio’s place and they were driven without incident. Sombra, at first, looked out the window moodily but then snuggled herself in Lucio’s arms to let herself be held. A few moments after, they were kissing slow deep kisses as the driver hummed to himself.

“We’re here,” said the driver, interrupting them, “there’s just an issue with the payment. The app would have deducted it automatically but there’s a problem with your account”

“That’s odd,” muttered Lucio reaching for his wallet.

“Do you care?” asked Sombra.

“What do you mean?”

“Do you care if I take care of this?”

“No”

Sombra pulled out a suspicious credit card from her backpack and handed it to the driver. Lucio smirked.

“Thank you, Ms. Ferreyra,” said the driver, processing the card and returning it to her, “careful out there, looks like trouble”

Sombra gave him a fake smile and they stepped out. They hadn’t at all noticed.

* * * 

As they stepped out of the car in front of Otavio's building they immediately noticed a small crowd gathered outside with their hands and shirts covering their mouths. The crowd watched with worry and grim awe as the colonial building burned from the inside. Fire crew struggled to hose the burning building down with chemical water to snuff the fire as emergency workers carried stretchers laden with burn victims away from the scene.

Lucio frantically searched for Otavio among the crowd as the fire from inside the stone building's windows illuminated the night sky.

Finally, Lucio spotted Otavio being hauled from the building by a fireman. He was plopped on a stretcher carried by numerous emergency workers who immediately began securing him and attending to him. Lucio and Sombra ran up as they cut off his burnt clothes.

“Stand back!” an EMT ordered.

“Its OK we’re friends”

“Doesn’t matter, stay back”

Otavio caught a glimpse of Lucio struggling to get past the emergency workers to get to him. He sputtered and gasped, half his face was badly burnt.

“Is that Lucio? He’s OK,” Otavio managed to speak, his voice was hoarse and smokey.

“Sir, you’re you have a burn wound on your face, its important you don’t try to speak”

“I think I can fucking tell when I’m burnt, ma’am,” he croaked.

The poor EMT turned to Lucio and Sombra. “You can see him in the hospital,” she said.

Another EMT held a laminated chart in front of Otavio’s face. “The faces represent pain on a scale of zero to ten, with zero being no pain and ten being the worst pain you can imagine. Point to one showing the amount of pain you’re feeling”

“Ten! Fucking ten,” groaned Otavio as he flopped his arm at the chart.

They promptly pumped him full of opiates and hauled him away.

Lucio paced as Sombra watched the EMTs elevate Otavio into the ambulance with her hands under her armpits. The EMTs unceremoniously latched the doors with two clunks and were off. As the ambulance hovered away Sombra walked up to Lucio and hugged him under his arms to get him to stop pacing.

“You know where they’re taking him?” she asked.

“Yeah, Hospital Municipal Miguel Couto. I have to call another car but I’m weirded out by my account”

“It should be fine. You probably just haven’t used that app it in a while, some apps get weird about saved payment information, you know?”

“How do you know?”

Sombra shook her head and smiled nervously. “I used your account earlier today”

“Heh,” replied Lucio.

They arrived at the hospital. Lucio had the car wait as he went to a nearby ATM to take money out and pay in cash. Sombra again waited hunched over slightly with her hands crossed under her armpits as she watched Lucio rage at the machine with concern.

“Lucio, stop,” she called to him.

“Its all fucking locked! Every account!” cursed Lucio as he hit the ATM, “God damn it!”

Some hospital workers on a smoke break eyed Lucio suspiciously.

“Look, I’ll just take care of the ride...” muttered Sombra.

She leaned in through the car window and paid the man with her stolen credit card then walked back to Lucio as he continued to rage against the 24 hour ATM. He hit it decisively three more times before giving up and sitting on the curb feeling utterly dejected.

“I feel like I’m being pushed,” Lucio complained, “what’s this about, huh?”

Sombra delicately bit her tongue but then decided to speak. “It about what you did, Vishkar didn’t like that you stood up to them. I’m sure its all related”

“This is about me? I just wanted to help people. I can’t- how many people were on stretchers because of me if that’s true?”

“You talked to the wrong people, Lucio. This is what happens. I’m just being realistic”

“Its not right. Otavio shouldn’t be fucking burnt-mutilated, he’s never done anything wrong in his life. And I have no idea where Ari is or if she’s OK.” Lucio planted his face in his hands and groaned. “Ugh, I can’t believe this is happening”

They sat in silence for a moment. Sombra wrapped her arm around Lucio and rested her head on his shoulder.

“Come on, lets go inside,” he said finally.

 


	19. Chapter 19

Lucio and Sombra entered the hospital and were told to wait as Otavio underwent an emergency procedure. It was clean and modern, Leblon was an affluent district and the hospital certainly showed it. The wood furnished waiting room was meant to be calming and distinct from the white anti-septic walls of the rest of the hospital. It featured a large flat panel TV which blared some proprietary content from the hospital which was apprehensively watched by the waiting friends and family of the other fire victims. The air conditioned waiting room made Sombra chilly in her somewhat skimpy bathing top so she pressed herself into Lucio to let herself be held. As she rested her head on his shoulder, he regarded her fine black hairs and the goosebumps on her arms, thinking to himself. After some time, her breathing became deeper. Lucio realized she'd fallen asleep. 

At first, he felt too stressed to sleep. The feeling that everything was falling apart made it seemingly impossible. He felt he was at the lowest of lows: no money, his friend was hurt, he had nowhere safe to go, the project he was working on for a year was coming undone. It was all too much to think about. Soon his mind drifted to his frantic conversation leaving the favela. Why hadn't he said he loved her? Was it because he had some idea of the type of person Sombra was? He knew it was absurd: he'd embarrass himself, she'd find him awkward and ridiculous or ignore him or, worse, feel like she couldn't be friends with him. No, he'd have to be smooth and on her level, playful and not too invested. Sombra was like a cat. If he cared too much, she'd lose interest in him, he'd have to seduce her. This too became overwhelming to think in its fraughtness. The complexity of his problems pushed him to sleep.

Finally, a nurse stepped into the waiting area and called for Lucio and he snorted awake. Sombra sleepily unfurled herself from Lucio, stretched and yawned. The disheveled pair approached the check-in counter to be escorted to Otavio's room.

"Are you Lucio, like the DJ?" she asked as they walked.

"Yeah, that's me," he replied, trying to muster enthusiasm about it.

"I thought it was you! I love your music! I've never been to a show, its why I didn't know what you looked like. I just stream it on the internet. Although, you kind of look like how I imagined you'd look from your music, if that makes sense--not that you're generic! I'm so sorry about what happened to your friend by the way..." she blabbed.

Sombra investigated the nurse's face as they talked. She was young with curly hair and freckles. She appeared somewhat piqued by Lucio. Sombra shook her head in disdain, the girl was a dork.

They were led into a eggplant purple colored room with a curtain separating Otavio from another sleeping patient. Lucio was discomforted to see Otavio's body, especially his face wrapped in bandages. Otavio beckoned them in with a bandaged hand. The nurse dismissed herself and left them in private when she realized Otavio was in pain.

"Lucio, come close," said Otavio rolling his head towards him.

Lucio's eyes shifted and he hesitantly complied. He didn't like the idea of seeing his friend injured. As he stepped to Otavio's side, he grabbed the bottom of Lucio's shirt and pulled him close.

"It was Satya Vaswani," he hissed under his breath. His voice was groggy, it almost sounded like it was itself burnt. But the strength of his grip indicated he was alright, even if he was in tremendous amounts of pain. "I'll never be able to prove it but I'm sure it was her. She appeared like a ghost out of some kind of portal while I was talking to Ari on the intercom. She can manipulate hard-light with her hands. She made a bomb with all the internal workings in a matter of seconds and disappeared. It was unreal"

"What? Come on, you need computers and precision robotics to project anything more than the most simple designs," contested Lucio.

"She doesn't project it, she bends it," Otavio said breaking his unexpectedly formidable grip, “it makes her the perfect assassin and she's after me"

"I don’t believe it...” muttered Lucio, "are you OK? How did you survive?"

"Look at my chest. The bitch microwaved me with some kind of gun and then left me for dead. I'm guessing she used some sort of incendiary bomb to burn out the building. I was told I was unconscious breathing smoke until the fireman found me"

Lucio shook his head, it still didn't make sense, to him Otavio being alive was a miracle. “Man, what the hell are we going to do?" he asked.

Otavio hacked. “I don’t know, all I know is that we’re not safe here. You-,” he said grabbing Lucio again causing the metal hospital bed to rattle, “you’ve got to _move_ me”

“You’re injured, Otto. Your face... The doctors said you need more care. If you move you'll undo their work"

Otavio pulled Lucio down, surprising him. “Yeah, but they don’t know that if I stay here tonight Vishkar will kill me, which I think is more of a hazard to my health,” he hissed. Otavio strengthened his grip and stared Lucio in the eye. “Look at me, _they will kill me._ Forget the doctors, they can't do anything, I'll be scarred for the rest of my life”

Lucio felt a jolt of paranoia rocket down his spine. His eyes scanned the hospital environment before falling back on Otavio's unnerving gaze. Otavio let go after he felt he had added the proper emphasis to his point. Lucio sighed and rubbed his forehead as he considered what all this meant. His first instinct was to view this as Otavio's neuroticism at work but considering everything that had happened, it was likely the unfortunate truth. The cute nurse, the doctors, could anyone here be trusted?

“OK, man, I got it. But where do we go?” he asked.

“Anywhere, the favela, I don’t care!”

“What about Ari?”

“I don’t-” he started to snap. He continued in a low tone, “look, I don’t know. But Sombra was right, she’s Vishkar. We can find out after you get me out of here. What's important is that we leave _now._ ” Sombra and Lucio exchanged nervous glances. It occurred to Lucio that Otavio was severely injured and might possibly not be in his right mind. "I said, now!" he barked.

Sombra and Lucio put aside their reservations so he wouldn't shout and scrambled to help him out of the bed. Lucio, however, realized only one person could really help at a time when Sombra glared at him as if he was getting in the way while she tried lift Otavio. He stood awkwardly with his hand on his forehead.

“Don’t grip me there, its like burnt flesh,” Otavio complained as Sombra tried to prop him by putting her arm under his shoulder.

“You sure you can do this?” she asked incredulously as she tried to find another spot to grip him.

“I'm fine, they gave me something pretty intense for the pain, I just have to make sure I don't put any pressure on my burns." Lucio stared at Otavio agape, he couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Look, I'm fine, just get me crutches and grab my things over there,” he said pointing to a nearby counter top with a metal tray holding his belongings.

"You don't need clothes or anything, Otto?" asked Lucio grabbing crutches off the wall and handing them to Otavio.

Otavio stood awkwardly on one foot held up by Sombra as she helped him mount the crutches under his armpits. "There's no time, besides my clothes are gone," he said.

Once he was stable Sombra picked his wallet and keys out of the metal tray and deposited them in her backpack. "So, you're going to run through the hospital bare-assed and high on painkillers?" she asked raising an eyebrow.

"Unless you have a better plan..."

“Alright, my dude,” said Lucio solemnly, "lets do this"

Lucio peered through the room divider and eyed the door. Otavio and Sombra watched Lucio expectantly as he stepped towards the door and opened it just a crack. Suddenly, it swung open surprising him.

It was the nurse. 

"Oh my God, you scared me," she said holding her heart.

"Sorry 'bout that, I was, uh, just looking for you..."

“Really?" she said enthusiastically, but then hid her excitement, "um, do you need anything?”

“Naw, no, I’m fine...” fumbled Lucio. His eyes turned to Otavio and Sombra looking at him through a slit in the divider. They stared at him wide-eyed. “Actually, yes!" he said catching himself, "My friend is hurting pretty bad, he wants a more powerful pain killer”

“Um... I'm not sure I can-” 

Sombra and Otavio cringed, Lucio was a terrible liar and there were more than enough patients trying to score opiates. Lucio saw that she wasn't having it. He tried to look earnest or maybe flirty. Whatever it was, he prayed his charm would work its magic.

"Please, he's having a rough time with it," he managed to say.

"I'll, uh, go ask the doctor..." replied the nurse apprehensively.

Lucio gave a bashful smile then quickly caught himself and tried to make a normal face. The nurse lowered her eyes to the ground and held her clipboard close as she turned to leave. Sombra approached Lucio from behind, surprising him slightly when she put her arm around his shoulder.

"So, when are you two gonna fuck, _cabron_?"

“Please, there's no time," asserted Otavio, maneuvering over to Lucio on his crutches, "we have to get out without attracting attention...”

Sombra went ahead and distracted the secretary at the patient intake and checkout desk by acting panicked and switching rapidly between English and Spanish. Lucio and Otavio, meanwhile, hustled by and they exited the ward unnoticed. A few passerbys caught that Otavio's butt was hanging out of his hospital gown and pretended not to notice. Once they were clear, Sombra apologized to the confused woman and hustled after them. They briskly made their way to the elevator and headed to the garage level, waiting awkwardly with about 6 other people including hospital staff. They didn't seem to question that a patient was in the elevator.

As they rode, another attractive nurse eyed Lucio. He bashfully smiled back at her.

"Heya Lucio..." she purred.

At first, Otavio was alarmed, but then he openly wondered if female nurses being into Lucio was part of some conspiracy, finally a wave of relief went through Otavio as he realized Lucio was distracting her from the realization that a patient wasn't where he was supposed to be.

"Um, hi," Lucio replied timidly.

The elevator dinged at the garage level.

"Aye yaie yaie," muttered Sombra as she grabbed his collar, "come on!"

They stumbled out of the elevator and booked it past the parked cars at what they hoped was a brisk but unsuspicious speed towards the exit and onto the road. Once they gained a fair amount of distance from the hospital garage. They sat on the curb and waited for yet another car from Lucio’s phone app. As they waited they noticed an elegant sedan followed by a Vishkar security car hover past at high speed in the direction of the hospital. Lucio and Otavio reflexively looked down and hid their faces. Once clear, they exchanged glances. Lucio had no doubt Otavio believed the car was for him.

"Man, Otavio, you can really move in those crutches," Sombra noted as they sat.

She pulled some cigarettes from her backpack, took two and handed one to Otavio. The idea of more smoke in his lungs was a turn off but he wanted to dull his stress.

Otavio gave a delayed scoff and took the cigarette in his bandaged hand. He still didn't like Sombra. But as she lit his butt he began to feel more ambiguous about the notion that she was a bad person. "I broke my ankle when I was a teenager playing football with Lucio. I took dive for the ball and landed all wrong. I had to move around in them for months, I learned pretty well..." he said exhaling.

Sombra gave a half-amused humphed and lit her cigarette. They sat and smoked together in silence. After some time, Lucio received a text that his car had arrived and they rose from the curb and stepped out of the darkness into the street light.

He approached the driver. He was a somewhat muscular afro-latino man wearing a smart yellow polo.

“Hey man, there’s something up with your account-” the driver started.

Lucio interrupted, “Yeah, I know"

“OK. Yeah, there’s been a few instances of fraud tonight so I’m just letting you know. As long as you can pay, man”

“Jesus, Lucio, just call a cab you fucking hipster,” said Sombra rolling her eyes.

They helped Otavio into the car then fumbled to find a way to comfortably fit in his crutches. Eventually they found a way to sit with them across their legs. The driver, meanwhile, tapped on his smartphone to configure his GPS.

“Where to?” he said leaning back to get a look at his passengers. He noticed Otavio's bandages. "He OK? He doesn't seem too well, man"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Fucking hospitals, man," replied Otavio trying to settle the driver's nerves, "Lucio, tell him where to go"

“Take us to Rocinha, the south entrance”

“Oh, you don’t want to go there tonight. BOPE's been conducting a raid all day, they probably won’t even let you since its after curfew. You sure?”

“Yeah, we’re sure...” Lucio affirmed forebodingly.

 

* * *

 

"Aaryahi Ganguly, I apologize for keeping you waiting. I had unexpected business to attend to," said a prim looking man in a Vishkar uniform as he entered the holding room, "you are in quite an interesting position to help us. We are prepared to make an offer"

As he stepped to the center of the room a table and second chair were projected from a hard-light emitter in the ceiling. Until that moment, Ari had been sitting in a steel chair alone in the featureless room for hours. There was nothing to do but ruminate as she stared at its dark grey walls in the low light. She felt lightheaded from not having eaten but oddly calm from the subdued colors of the room. The memories of her last few conversations with Otavio played in her head. The possibility of him being dead rumbled in the back of her mind. It would be her fault if he was. She remained calm all the same, however, since she was determined to never work for Vishkar ever again. It was the only way to correct what she'd done.

"I don't care, I quit"

"I'm afraid that's not a possibility, Ms. Ganguly," he said taking a seat in front of her, "we're in a bit of an emergency situation and your knowledge is required. You know who I am, yes?"

"You're Sanjay Korpal. I don't know your position but you're important. I know," she said disdainfully.

He hmm'd in amusement.

"Indeed, I'm the project manager of the Rio Utopia project, I'm technically higher than the lead architect, Satya Vaswani, but truly I report to her, though I give her advice and counsel. Why am I telling you this? Ms. Vaswani views you as a liability" Sanjay rubbed his thumb over his index finger as he chose his words. "As you know, there was an unscheduled demolition of the apartment block you were visiting. Since you were unfortunately the only witness to the event, Ms. Vaswani who is a completionist, believes it is best to tie up loose ends. I, however, see potential in you and believe your testimony will be of value"

Ari fixed her eyes on his and remembered the calm she'd felt from her decision. "I told you, I'm not doing anything. I quit," she said flatly.

"I'll be frank, Vishkar is an extremely powerful corporation. Though we show restraint, make no mistake, we're virtually above the law and that's if we aren't writing it ourselves. Its unhappy, but if you do not comply, you'll be found dead in a slum. We are willing to do anything necessary, make any sacrifice, to modernize this city and ensure that its citizens have good productive lives. But its my hope it won't come to that"

Ari felt her conviction waver. She averted her eyes and held her arm as she tried to recapture the feeling of strength and calm she felt.

"I don't care, I don't want to be involved," she muttered.

Sanjay leaned in.

"But you do care. I would be remiss if I didn't tell you the advantages of helping us, we like to provide the proper incentive for our employees. Our company is sometimes derided as a matriarchal cult. There is some truth to this, certainly we at the upper levels form an inner circle and we all have shared values. You will certainly be much closer to us if you decide to help. We would put you in our education initiative--to ensure your qualifications, of course--and give you a high-level managerial position. All you have to do is testify that your friends Lucio and Otavio are terrorists"

Ari was silent. Sanjay leaned back and again considered his words.

"I read your profile. As you know, you consented to allowing us to accumulate data on you as an employee so we could better place you... You're from a lower middle class Bengali family, you did well in school but you didn't have a natural aptitude for anything in particular so you didn't apply to college. No matter, your parents couldn't afford it. However, you fell into a depression while your friends were studying. You didn't submit your resume for a higher paying position at Vishkar because you didn't want the responsibility, you just wanted to get out of your home town. You're an avid user of social media, blogging to people back home about what its like in Brazil."

He paused.

It was all from memory, Ari couldn't help but feel shocked and weirdly flattered that he'd invested the time to study her if it wasn't so utterly alienating. Sanjay blinked at her with a look resembling that of a concerned parent before continuing.

"You've considered starting a YouTube channel for extra money but have yet to do so, you've also considered modeling on social media but you're worried you're too short and that your skin isn't attractive enough. You thought you had your break when you started to date your well-off boyfriend Otavio, who you intend to marry..."

"I don't care what you know," she said.

Her tone betrayed she was hurt. Hearing it all summed up to her, her life sounded pathetic.

"I will tell you what I see, this is someone that is going nowhere. Even if you could marry Otavio, you would never amount to anything but being a wife. Vishkar uplifts people, we're here to help not just the citizens here but everyone we can reach with our project. You'll be given the chance you deserve to lead an _exceptional_ life. To wield power and be respected, you'll help improve people's lives"

"No, I promised myself I would never do anything more for Vishkar. People hate us, they think we need to be stopped and I agree"

"Be realistic, you enter data," he said abruptly standing, "you're in no position to stop anything, especially now..."

As Ari watched Sanjay walk towards the door a feeling of dread hit her stomach. She wanted to jump up and grab him, begging him to stay so she could defy him and postpone the inevitable. Instead she merely stared at him fearfully. He grabbed the door handle but stopped himself and regarded Ari over his shoulder. "In my opinion, its best that your ideology match what you are capable of," he said simply. 

"Where are you going?" asked Ari nervously.

"Our persuasion models show that it is better to leave one alone while they are considering. When I return, you'll tell us your decision and we will proceed from there," he said then was gone.

 

* * *

 

 _I just can't fucking leave the favela_ , thought Lucio as they arrived at Rocinha's militarized south entrance. Otavio tried to pay the driver but discovered that his account, like Lucio's, was locked. Sombra sighed and offered her stolen card as Otavio began to rage.

"Agh! It hurts my face to be so angry! How could they do this to me?!" he fumed.

"Save it, Otto," murmured Lucio, "they did it to me too"

"The bastards, they touch my money, my parents will kill me!"

They piled out of the car just out of view of the checkpoint. The checkpoint itself had been hardened. A spot light shone directly on to the road leading into the favela while an armored car hovered ominously baring its intimidating anti-infantry gun upon anyone attempting to enter.

Their driver wished them well as they left and the car motored off. Now they were left with their dilemma of how to get into the fortified favela.

Lucio ran his fingers through his dreads as he eyed the imposing border wall. "How the hell are we going to get him all the way to Lil' Nem?"

He was referring to Otavio. It was unreasonable to try and make him crutch it down the treacherous favela paths. 

"Dunno, call him," offered Sombra.

Getting help from Lil' Nem as unpleasant as it was seemed like the only logical choice.

"Man, this night is whack," Lucio muttered as he grabbed his phone.

The battery was low. He hadn't charged it since he was last at Otavio's place. More trouble. He ignored it and made his call.

"Yo, Nem, its Lucio.... Yeah, I'm with Sombra. I need a favor... OK, we need a way in. I have a guy who's injured, he can't climb a wall and we can't go through the checkpoint... What? You want to talk to her?"

"Gimme the phone," sighed Sombra. She cleared her throat and began speaking in the Portuhol she'd picked up hanging out with Lil' Nem. Lucio watched with awe as she answered in variations of, "Yes, baby" or "no, baby" then engaged a rapid fire argument with him in the pigeon language. Finally, Sombra scoffed and nonchalantly tossed the phone into Lucio's hands. Lucio stared at her in bewilderment.

"He'll meet you near Praça Ailton Rosa. They're busting out a section of the wall," she said.

"What?! Are you joking? They don't have a secret entrance or something?!"

"What? Ow! What'd he say?" asked Otavio, his face pained from his expression of surprise.

"He's avoiding a BOPE patrol right now so it might take a while," said Sombra eyeing her nails.

"This is... I can't even..." uttered Lucio completely flabbergasted.

"Hey, you wanted in, right?" chided Sombra, "I got him to do it. So let's move"

They followed the favela wall until they arrived at the abandoned Rocinha sports complex. Propaganda for Vishkar's development project adorned the 5 story wall surrounding the favela and separating it from the nearby highway.

Lucio checked the time on his phone. It'd taken them nearly 45 minutes to reach this segment of the wall. He hoped that was enough time to meet them.

The three sat waiting under a concrete walkway which at one point had led to the sports complex but now led directly into the concrete wall, into nowhere. After some time, they heard the struggling of several two-stroke moped engines approach from behind the wall.

Lucio stood when he heard the engines stop. There was the exchange of a few urgently spoken words then  _BOOM!_ An explosion blew a person sized hole in the favela wall. Immediately a Vishkar suppression tower sounded an alarm.

"Go go go!" shouted Lil' Nem.

"This is completely cray!" shouted Lucio as he booked it with Sombra and Otavio towards the hole.

Sombra was helped through first by Lil' Nem followed by Lucio as Otavio struggled on his crutches behind.

"Hurry!" Lil' Nem shouted, "this wall is Vishkar's, they get here faster than the police!"

Otavio passed his crutches through the hole then tried to hop through on one foot. Lucio took his arms and assisted him through. On the other side waited three mopeds, two of which were piloted by Lil' Nem's henchmen with bandannas covering their faces.

"We're going to ride on those? I haven't seen one with wheels since I was a kid..." muttered Sombra, referring to the ancient small engine motorcycles.

"She rides with me," asserted Lil' Nem, pointing to Sombra as he mounted his moped, "and lose the crutches"

Sombra shrugged and dutifully walked to Lil' Nem's moped.

"Hey! And what? He needs those to get around!" protested Lucio as he watched Sombra return to Lil' Nem.

"What? He broken something? I have something for him back home, don't worry, man," replied Lil' Nem. Lucio was about to protest further for Otavio when Lil' Nem cut him off, "we got to go man! Vishkar will ghost in and we'll all be killed. Just trust me"

The three rode on the back of the struggling mopeds up the winding favela streets and away from the blaring siren in a line with Lil' Nem leading. Otavio bared the indignity of riding with his butt exposed to the world. Their weight and the uphill climb heavily taxed the little engines but they made decent time, arriving at Lil' Nem's place in less than an hour. Upon arrival, they dismounted and stretched, their butts numb from the poor suspension of the little motorcycles and their ears ringing from the sputtering sound of the two-stroke engines. Lucio and Sombra again helped Otavio as he climbed the stairs to Lil' Nem's meager drug kingpin apartment.

"So, what do you have for me?" asked Otavio with a hint of bitterness as they entered Lil' Nem's apartment.

The remains of yesterday's party adorned the space. Nem beckoned one of his men over and quickly told him to fetch something as Otavio watched skeptically. The dude scampered off and returned with a black hardened case. Otavio didn't have high hopes considering the state of Lil' Nem's apartment and the favela in general.

"Military grade biotics, my friend," said Lil' Nem with a smile as his henchmen flipped open the latches, "we captured them last month. Only problem is I can't figure out how to get them to work. We turn them on, they do nothing"

"So they're useless," spat Otavio.

"Not so fast," replied Lil' Nem grabbing Sombra's arm and pulling her to him. She stumbled slightly and cast him a frustrated look. "She'll figure it out. I caught her using my computer the other day. You know I never ever save any of my passwords and she cracked all my bank accounts? She transferred a bunch of my money to Mexico. The girl is smarter than she pretends," he said with a shark-like grin, "I don't speak English but I bet she says she doesn't understand what I'm saying..."

"What's he saying about me, Lucio?" she said pulling her arm back.

"He says you understand what he's saying"

"What? He kind of speaks Spanish with a bunch of Portuguese words but-"

"Sombra, we don't have time!" insisted Otavio.

"Look, I don't fucking understand what he's saying, its too fast!" she replied defensively.

The three men stared expectantly at her. Nem continued to grin. Sombra realized her jig was up. Finally, she huffed with a contemptuous look.

"Fuck, I'll do it," she said crossing her arms moodily, "way to ruin it for me..."

* * * 

Otavio and Lucio sat next to Sombra on the sunken couch, Otavio now wearing some of Lil' Nem's clothes. Lil' Nem's henchmen had fetched soldering tools for her and now a biotic field emitter was sitting disassembled on the glass table. Sombra leaned forward from the blown out couch fiddling with the component parts, muttering and chuckling to herself in Spanish as if she were amused by her own intelligence. Every now and then Sombra shifted position and snorted a line of coke Lil' Nem's bodyguard had prepared for her through her tampon applicator turned coke straw. This was, evidently, how Sombra worked. Lucio and Otavio sat hopelessly confused, trying to divine her methodology. Periodically, Sombra put a part or tool in Lucio's hands to hold and would later grunt at him or hold her hand out impatiently to indicate that she wanted it.

As she worked, Lil' Nem's bodyguards peered out the window with their automatic rifles looking for BOPE patrols. Lil' Nem himself used the free part of the table to roll a massive blunt. The room was tense as Sombra worked. Sporadic gunshots sounded in the distance, triggering Nem's henchmen to swivel their heads in the direction of the fire.

"We're safe here," Nem asserted as smoke wafted from his blunt, "BOPE has never come this close..." Suddenly, Lil' Nem took a meditative tone. "You two rich boys must be pretty scared to run into my territory..."

"Its Satya Vaswani. She wants me dead," said Otavio.

"I believe it, my friend. 'round here we don't call her Ms. Vaswani or by her title 'Lead Architect.' We found the Vishkar document where they call her Symmetra. Its a code name, so we call her by her code name, Symmetra. There are superstitious people who live here, they say she can open portals to other worlds and walk through walls. I thought I saw her once and I swear to God, she looks at me and I felt she was 1,000 years old. Her look still gives me shivers... They'll be coming harder for us now that we blew open the wall, alright. Vishkar is always looking for more excuses to take matters into their own hands"

Finally Sombra spoke. "It has an IFF system," she said holding up the biotic emitter and pointing to a piece of exposed circuitry.

"A what?" asked Lucio stupidly.

"Its Identification Friend or Foe. You need a transponder configured to the device to tell it that you're friendly, otherwise the field it emits doesn't heal you. Its so if this shit gets captured it can't be used to heal enemy soldiers"

"How does that even-"

"Look, I have no idea how biotics work but I know the electronics. I can either try to reprogram the chip so it heals whatever, which I _really_ don't want to do, or I can try to trigger a positive friendly identification in the IFF system." She carelessly plopped the device down on the table causing the components to rattle. "I'm also pretty sure that this one is now a dud, since whoever made it definitely anticipated people taking them apart"

She picked a few components out of her piles then pushed the meticulously organized, delicate and probably expensive parts off to the side into a messy heap. Lil' Nem raised his eyebrows at her seemingly careless move, each one of the emitters was worth thousands of dollars, but didn't question it. He lay back in his wicker throne with his arms behind his head and tried not to think about it. Sombra meanwhile, proceeded to arrange the remaining parts and solder them together into a new configuration. She then retrieved her computer from her backpack along with a curious plastic device with numerous different sized interfaces and plugged it into a port on the Frankensteined device's board.

"What are you doing?" asked Otavio.

"I'm turning this thing's IFF system into a transponder. It interrogates at 1030 Mhz signal and expects a 24 bit response at 1090. I'll just configure it to flash all possible combinations"

"How many is that?"

"Lets see, 2 to the 24th? That's 16,777,214. Looks like I'm reprogramming this thing anyway," she sighed.

"That's a lot," he said simply. Lucio was dumbfounded, although, now he was a little used to feeling dumbfounded with Sombra.

"Sure, but the signal is sent out once so I have to find out exactly what it is." Sombra switched to Portuguese. "Yo, Lil' Nem, I need to break another of these"

Nem raised his hand with somewhat regal gesture indicating to go ahead and Sombra took another biotic field emitter and plopped it on the table.

She proceeded to attack the device. With its guts exposed, she began to carefully pick and resolder the components. As Sombra worked, Otavio began to grimace. His painkillers were starting to wear off.

"Almost done," she muttered.

"What are you doing?" asked Lucio.

It was the only thing they could ask.

"Its stupid, but it'll work. If I try to write to the board it will erase itself so I have to electrically make it send the interrogation signal"

"How long's this gonna take?" groaned Otavio.

"Hey, you want to hack the fucking military biomedical device?" she snapped, "look, its O(n) time, it'll flash about every millisecond so it will take 4 and a half hours, maximum." She finished soldering and connected the emitter to her computer then stood. "It'll record the correct combination when its done _then_ I have to configure the emitter. If I were you I'd just take some painkillers and check out, we can't do anything but wait." Sombra stretched with a smile. "Lil' Nem will hook you up, _amigo,_ " she yawned, "man, you're lucky I'm a good person, Otavio. People who reverse engineer military hardware are paid a shit ton of money and I just did it for free"

The moment Lucio had been dreading had arrived.

"You can't trust her but she's something special, eh?" purred Lil' Nem as Sombra lazily approached and whispered in his ear. He smiled. "You want drugs, Otavio? For you, my man, its on the house"

"Yeah, thanks..." he replied bitterly.

Sombra again whispered in Lil' Nem's ear whilst one of his bodyguards opened the vault to his drug stash. His grin widened as he listened.

She looked up at him from Lil' Nem's shoulder. "Hey, Lucio," she said in a matter of fact tone as she rose, "don't take it personally"

He returned her a somewhat agitated and bewildered look as she walked to the bathroom and closed the door. Otavio regarded Lucio's face trying to figure what the dynamic was but, before he could divine anything, Nem's bodyguard tossed a baggy of prescription painkillers into his lap. Following was the sound of running shower water from the bathroom. 

Lil' Nem leaned back and finished his blunt, stamping it out on an ashtray held out for him by a bodyguard, then swaggered after Sombra. Otavio could see Lucio seething as a series of sounds heavy with implication emanated from the bathroom. First the sound of the bathroom door opening and shutting followed by a muffled conversation. Soon after was the sound of aroused breathing. Lucio looked off the the side with a scowl.

"You know I kicked his ass the last time he did this..." Lucio muttered to no one in particular.

Otavio squinted at Lucio and cocked an incredulous eyebrow. He was watching his good natured and peaceful friend seethe with anger.

"You like this girl?" he asked nodding towards the hallway.

It almost wasn't in the tone of a question. _You like this girl._ The thought crashed in Lucio's head as he watched Sombra's hack count down. He gave an exasperated shrug and sat back on the couch.

Quickly they heard the sound of the breathing intensify until it definitively became masculine moaning. It was easy to conclude it was definitely Lil' Nem making the sounds. The bodyguards smiled as Lucio crossed his arms resentfully and tapped his foot. 

"What have we gotten ourselves into?" sighed Otavio.

Suddenly, Lucio stood. "I'm going out"

"Balcony's too dangerous, a BOPE sniper might get you," said the bodyguard.

Lucio sat down in frustration. Otavio popped two pills and swallowed them dry. He rightly figured it was better to say nothing.

"Hey, don't worry, I think she's the one showing him a good time," joked one of Lil' Nem's bodyguards as he gave Lucio a pat on the back, "have a beer man, its been a long night"

The sounds died down after a sudden increase in volume and pace, he assumed at some point that Sombra and Lil' Nem had moved to his room. Lucio moved to the comfy chair to let Otavio lie down on the couch. Nem's had bodyguards rotated out, two new bandanna clad gangsters armed with sub-machine guns now guarded the premises. Lucio reflected as he sat back in the chair trying to forget Sombra and not imagine Lil' Nem's stupid pot belly or stupid dick. All three of them were there, they could now plan for their mobilization on the first. It was only a few days away.

Lucio found a plug for his dying smart phone and regarded his email inbox. It was flooded with thousands of notifications. They'd retweeted and reblogged his call to action and independently formed Facebook groups to help organize and get the word out. Otavio and Lucio didn't have any time to plan, the action was simply to gather at the municipal chamber and demand that the mayor resign and Vishkar's development contract be terminated. It still seemed impossible. He thumbed through the notifications until he drifted off to sleep.

* * *

Lucio slowly awoke from the sensation of being touched. He lolled his head sleepily until Sombra's sleepless gaze entered his field of view.

"I'm wired," she said with bright innervated eyes, "I did too much coke"

He sighed and flopped his arm down in frustration.

"I can't believe you..." Lucio muttered.

She hushed him and wedged her body next to his on the large comfy chair so she was facing him. He'd let her out of politeness but was quite angry with her.

"Aw, what's the matter?" she asked innocently, "all I did was go down on him. It was part of our deal"

Nem's two bodyguards were napping soundly, sitting against the wall with absurd neck pillows. Otavio stirred from the sound of Sombra's movement but continued to sleep. Lucio noticed that she actually smelled kind of clean, although distinctly herself. She began gripping him like a cat kneading its mother's belly. He tried to think of what to say but, before he knew it, Sombra's long tongue was being forced down his throat. Lucio recoiled in disgust.

"What are you doing?!" he hissed.

"Come on, I can't sleep," she said in a low tone, "I need you to help me like before." She embraced him again with a deep kiss but Lucio again recoiled. "Am I disgusting to you?" she asked sounding irritated.

"No, you're not, I'm just-"

It took Lucio a moment to realize Sombra had undone her shorts and was rubbing herself against his hips.

Sombra swallowed. "You don't even have to do anything, I'm so horny. Just kiss me," she whispered as she put her fingers between her legs.

Lucio let himself be kissed and it was over in about two minutes, Sombra pulled away and covered her own mouth as she shuddered from a weird coke addled orgasm then was still. She pet Lucio's dreads with a satisfied grin in her afterglow.

"You're fucked up, Sombra," said Lucio finally.

Sombra tilted her head and gave a little smile. "I'm a genius, I can afford to be fucked up."

Her eyes had changed, they were already bleary from tiredness and her orgasmic stupor. She fixed her shorts then wrapped her arms around Lucio. Though Lucio felt slightly resentful he had to admit to himself she felt comfortable. Sombra felt so soft.

"Its the drugs, right?" sighed Lucio in frustration.

"I don't get it, I thought you were jealous or something," she replied snuggling into him, "can we talk about this later? I feel so tired..."

* * *

Lucio heard commotion and stirred. There was a feeling of emptiness in the large chair, he supposed Sombra had left sometime in the morning. Nem's TV and sound system switched on and Lucio heard the urgent and officious voices of news casters. Poor sleep left Lucio with a bit of a migraine, he rubbed his forehead and slowly opened his eyes. He felt them sting slightly from the late morning sun as he looked at the ceiling to try to get his bearings. When he sat up from the blown out chair his eyes fell on Otavio who himself was in the process of waking up. Slowly, Lucio watched Otavio's face turn to horror. Sombra stepped in from the hallway with a grumpy expression but then turned solemn when she noticed Otavio trembling.

"No, this isn't happening. I can't believe it... I can't believe she's gone," muttered Otavio as he shook his head. Rapidly, the realization of what was happening hit him and his tears came on. He pressed the back of his trembling wrist to his eyes and wiped as he began to cry. Sombra sat next to Otavio and tried to comfort him by holding him. "No, no, nonononono..." His 'nos' continued as he held his head with a look of panic. Suddenly, they increased in volume until he was wailing. "NO! NO! Why her?! Why now?!" he shouted. Sombra squeezed Otavio harder and closed her eyes. "I never forgave her, she died thinking I hated her!" Otavio cried.

Lucio stood and put his palm to his forehead. Otavio's wailing sent a black shiver down his spine and spiked his adrenaline. His sleepiness was blown away by the tragedy.

"Turn that off!" shouted Lucio. A bodyguard eyed Nem, who was standing in the corner with his arms crossed, for approval. He nodded and the guard turned off the TV. "Whats going on?"

"They said a Vishkar girl was found dead in the favela this morning," said Lil' Nem walking to his wicker throne, "the police and news are all over it but I didn't know it was his girl"

"Who killed her?"

"Make no mistake, there's no murder in here unless I say OK and we don't touch Vishkar. I had no report of any Vishkar killed last night. I say Vishkar done her and planted her to put the blame on us," replied Lil' Nem, "its not good for us, I said Vishkar was looking for any excuse..."

"Lucio, please, talk to him," said Sombra nervously, "I don't know if I'm helping."

Otavio was now hunched over with his face in his hands as Sombra rubbed his back. He stared wide-eyed at the table through the gaps in his fingers muttering to himself. Lucio sat on his other side with his legs spread resting his elbows on his knees.

"Otto, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, man."

"Just comfort him while I finish the hack," said Sombra shifting and grabbing her laptop.

Lucio turned to Otavio. "Come here," he said but Otavio remained still. "Come on, man. Just come here," he said more insistently. Otavio looked up at Lucio from his fingers and Lucio embraced him with a hug. He held  him firm and he seemed to melt, weeping on his neck as Lucio closed his eyes and held him.

Lil' Nem shook his head and sighed as he watched tears streak out of Lucio's eyes.

"Things are pretty low," he muttered to himself, minding his rolling tobacco.

He turned his attention to Sombra, who was now putting the finishing touches on her hack. Her eyes were zeroed in on her screen as she shut out the excessive emotion and tension surrounding her.

"Alright, this should work," she said with a sniff.

Sombra picked a third biotic field emitter out of the case and slammed it down on the table. Its panels opened with a click revealing its core. As they spun a yellow field shot from the center of the emitter blanketing the room.

Suddenly, everyone in the room felt a rising feeling in their chests. Otavio wept oblivious to the field but suddenly became aware of the healing glow. He felt as if he had taken a dive into a pool of warm water. Lucio opened his eyes. He felt his headache clear as a wave of refreshment hit his body.

Lil' Nem couldn't help but smirk. He could make hundreds of thousands of dollars selling the emitters on the black market.

"What is this?" asked Lucio looking up from Otavio's shoulder.

"I got it to work," replied Sombra with a sly grin.

Otavio blinked and tentatively withdrew from Lucio's grasp. With a curious expression, he began to undo his bandages. To Lucio's amazement he witnessed the charred weeping skin underneath become even and smooth, albeit a little discolored.

"Unreal..." said Lucio in awe.

Hesitantly, Otavio felt his cheek with the tips of his fingers.

"Its the most bizarre feeling. I can't believe it. They wanted to do skin grafts..." He leaned down and pulled off the medical tape holding down the extensive bandages on his leg. It was the same as his cheek, even and smooth with the noticeable difference that it was lighter colored and the hairs were finer. "Look at this!" he said with melancholic happiness, "its maybe better than it was before..."

Lil' Nem's bodyguards nodded to each other in approval. Nem had spent months and thousands of dollars trying to figure out how to use the biotics stash. This might even be the thing to turn their conflict with BOPE in their favor.

"It feels like the sun," said Sombra closing her eyes and extending her neck to reveal it to the glow, "its  _really_ good."

Otavio suddenly pat her on the back slightly startling her. "I can't believe you did this!" he said squeezing her with a hug, "You're a genius—incredible! This is incredible!"

She took the hug with an eye roll and an arrogant smile. "Yeah, I'm pretty smart, _amigo_..."

Slowly the field died down and they felt its pleasant glow fade. It had lasted all of 30 seconds. Now, despite their sadness, the group sat feeling rejuvenated in the morning light.


End file.
